II: Cypnov
by Ancalagar the Dragon Lord
Summary: As Rose slowly recovers from her ordeal in the Void, she and the Doctor become more distant. Meanwhile, the Doctor takes her and Donna to the planet Cypnov, in search of an artifact the Helials accidentally left there. There they get dragged into a deadly political conflict between two warlord nations, and must choose who to trust. Part II of the "The Perennials."
1. Prologue: Verkatan Dusk

**_A/N:_**** I apologize for the delay posting this, but I hope you all had a good holiday as well. I spent a week in Arizona, and I didn't actually have much internet access, so I wasn't able to get this up sooner. I also wanted to complete the cover art before I started posting. When I uploaded the picture, the image was a bit blurred. There's a better version of it on the "Perennials" blog.**

**Without further ado, I give you: _The Perennials II: Cypnov._**

* * *

><p>Prologue<br>Verkatan Dusk

_The planet Cypnov  
><em>_Yaldego  
><em>_22 Manghravas 718 pT*_

Night slowly settled upon Gavarik, but one could see Verkata setting behind the distant mountain range, causing a spectacular red glow to emanate from the horizon. A gentle breeze streamed in through the open window, through which most of the city could be viewed: the spiral towers of the high class extending into the sky, and the smaller houses below of the lower classes. It was getting late, but one could still see the shadowy forms of Radilians gliding silently from house to house and tower to tower, and occasionally a Halictid ornithopter roared past the buildings.

The only sound apart from the noise in the city outside was the gentle scratching of a pen on paper, sometimes accompanied by the harrumphs and grunts of the writer. Then Raquin Nahtavid put his pen down, and looked out the window, his demeanor quiet and troubled, knowing what was happening within the palace walls. Someone was going to act soon. A power transition was inevitable, but the question of who truly deserved that power was fresh in the minds of all who understood the Pratethate and its situation.

Raquin stood and slowly made his way to the window, surveying the streets and people all across Gavarik, and then turned his gaze past the buildings to the horizon; the palace oversaw the city, and beyond to the whole of Yaldego. It was a desert landscape, not at all the natural habitat of the Radilian race, but a beautifully terrible and mesmerizing scene. The Sunitoth Mountains extended into the distance like a row of spikes that gradually faded from view. Somewhere along that mountain range, Raquin reflected, one of the few remnants of Taledrevan civilization remained in tact and well hidden, also overseeing the desert. Most such places had been destroyed after Pratethan Velathin managed to reunify most of Cypnov four hundred years previous, but even so, the mark of the Helials remained. It had been over seven hundred years… so long ago that there was not a single Radilian alive whose grandfather had so much as looked at a Helial, yet the civilizations of Cypnov still hadn't recovered. He bitterly wondered if his people and his world would ever recover.

"Raquin?" a soft voice called.

He turned from the window to see his sister standing on the threshold, her expression as troubled as his. He gestured for her to enter, and she stepped inside and quietly closed the door.

"What is it, Temenir?" he asked somberly. "Has something happened?"

Temenir took a seat on a cushioned stool near the desk; she was scratching the back of her head nervously, but she looked at him and said, "The servants are saying that the Hegemon is dying."

Raquin was silent for a moment. Then he answered, "I know. Lady Aervanyn has just sent for Lord Deljath. I don't know if he's been told yet."

Raquin sat down again and stared off into space for a moment. As he considered this information, Temenir reached for the fruit bowl on his desk, and picked up one of the Genthakl figs. Raquin took one too, and pulling a small knife from his drawer, he began to cut up the fruit. As he ate, Temenir spoke up again.

"His Eminence has been sick for the past few years. There have been several close calls. Do they know it's real this time?"

She waited as Raquin finished chewing. When he swallowed, he told her, "It's real. The healers are saying he won't last through the night." He picked up his pen and started tapping the desktop softly. "I suppose it was inevitable, Temenir."

"I know but if he dies tonight…" Temenir stopped, as if unsure of what to say next.

Raquin completed her thought. "If he dies tonight, then Deljath Theletas becomes Hegemon."

"Great Verkata," Temenir sighed. "With him as Hegemon, and Lord Davinathe his advisor, the gods save Yaldego."

"And the rest of Cypnov," Raquin added quietly, glancing around.

"Is it safe to speak up in here?" Temenir asked hastily, seeing Raquin's eye movements.

"While His Eminence is alive and his minister in charge, yes, I believe so," he reassured her, "Minister Kaladeth despises Davinathe and has little confidence in Deljath, so he won't care what we say about them. On the other hand I don't know how much longer that safety will last. Ferjhaal Davinathe," he snorted scathingly. "He'll be the only person here, laying aside Deljath, who will be ecstatic at the news of the Hegemon's death."

He then stood. So did Temenir, though she didn't move. "Will you be leaving tonight?"

Raquin thought for a moment. "After Divathan dies, I'll likely be required to attend the funeral, but perhaps after... I'll go clear it with Davinathe now." He snorted again.

Temenir nodded, then left the room, her thick tail bouncing up and down behind her. Raquin watched her go as a feeling of apprehension came over him. There was no way to tell what would happen now, if Divathan Theletas truly would be dead by sunrise. So much had changed in the past few years, especially after the exile of the Hegemon's second son, that it was impossible to know what was coming. Nevertheless, after another quick glance at the setting Verkata, Raquin followed Temenir out of his office and made his way up the spiral hallway, up the stairs and past various rooms and antechambers, until he reached a door flanked by two guards and gold-colored synthetic armor, the uniform of the Yaldegan Imperial Army.

One of the guards lifted his hand to stop Raquin, but one look at his demeanor told the latter that they had recognized him.

"Only officers specially requested by Lord Davinathe are allowed in," the guard informed him.

Raquin shrugged, unsurprised. "Have any messages come here for either him or Lord Deljath?"

"A servant tried to bring one," one of the guards answered uncertainly. "We told her it would have to wait."

Raquin scowled. "That servant had a message from Lord Deljath's wife, concerning his father."

His indignant expression was enough for the two guards to understand his meaning. Both gulped, and then one of them opened the door.

"The Warlord of Achtari, Raquin Nahtavid!" the guard announced as Raqin entered a small room, where five officials sat at a long table, not including Ferjhaal Davinathe, the tall, muscular man dressed in a fine, black tunic, and Deljath Theletas, who by no means was as tall or as well-built as the former. All seven of them looked surprised by Raquin's entry, and Deljath stood with his jaw set and his ears folded back tightly, clearly irritated.

"You were not invited here," he told Raquin, who nodded, trying to look apologetic.

"I beg your pardon, my lord, but Lady Aervanyn tried to send a message earler, requesting your presence," he informed Deljath. "I believe you are needed in your father's bedchamber immediately."

The visible anger on Deljath's face was quickly replaced with what he clearly thought was a somber expression. Everyone else could see the glee he struggled to cover up. It made Raquin feel a bit sick, but he held his tongue. Deljath turned to the other officers. "It's about time we wrapped up this discussion anyway. We'll resume conference tomorrow."

Raquin noticed that Deljath had caught Davinathe's eye as he said this. As the other officials stood and started to clear their things off the table, Deljath straightened his red tunic and quitted the room hastily. As the others slowly filed out of the room, Raquin saw a piece of paper fall out of the fireplace, and lingering behind, he waited until the last of them left, before stooping down and picking up the green-tinted scrap of paper and scanning the words scribbled across it. He then frowned as he pocketed it before quitting the room himself.

As he stepped back in the hallway, he caught sight of Ferjhaal Davinathe standing by the door, watching him. Raquin's eyes met the minister's icy gray ones, and he carefully assumed an emotionless manner.

"You took your time leaving," Davinathe commented.

"It's my leg," Raquin lied smoothly. "I got caught in the rebels crossfire when I left Achtari, you remember. I've had a twinge ever since. The climb up the stairs wasn't good for it."

Davinathe scrutinized him, and Raquin blinked innocently. Radilians were not capable of telepathy, but Raquin had heard more than one guard comment that having a conversation with the Foreign Minister was like being X-rayed. Raquin certainly understood that. He swallowed, and then added, "I wanted to talk to you anyway."

"Oh?"

"I need to attend to some business at my home in Gergnus," Raquin informed him, "but with the Hegemon dying, and Lord Theletas soon to take his place, I thought you ought to be the one I inform."

Davinathe continued to watch him carefully, and Raquin put every effort into not fidgeting. But after a moment, he nodded to Raquin, and told him, "Very well. You will be expected to attend the funeral of course."

"Thank you, Lord Davinathe."

Davinathe bowed respectfully and then followed the other officials down the stairs. As soon as he was out of sight, Raquin exhaled in relief. He only hoped that after the funeral, he'd be able to get away before Davinathe could assign him a bodyguard or someone to keep a close eye on him, because he certainly had no intention of going to Gergnus. Raquin headed back to his own office as quickly as possible, and upon his return, he closed the door, and then set the piece of paper on his desk before resuming his seat. He picked up the paper again and read it again, feeling as uneasy as ever.

_be named Etalih Innai: anti_

Someone cleared their throat, and Raquin looked up to see that Temenir had returned. He watched her expectantly, and she sighed and padded across the room until she was standing right in front of him.

"Only immediate family is allowed in the family quarters," she told him, "but I think we can all guess what that entails."

Raquin sighed. "Close the door, Temenir."

She backtracked and quietly shut it; as she did, Raquin stood and shut the window as well, before turning to look at her somberly. "As soon as the funeral's over, I'll depart immediately. Sadarin must be informed as soon as possible." He spoke in a very low voice, so that she had to lean forward, so close that they were almost nose to nose, to hear him.

Temenir glanced at the door, and at the monitor of Raquin's communications screen. "In all probability, he will already know by tomorrow," she reminded him.

"Nonetheless, he ought to hear the details from me." Raquin looked down at the little piece of paper in his hands, before handing it to Temenir. "What do you make of this?"

"Etalih Innai?" she read out loud, frowning. "Is that somebody's name, or something?"

"It's old Yaldegan," he informed her. "I believe it means 'divine wrath,' but that means just as much to me as modern Yaldegan."

Temenir looked up and looked at her brother with narrowed eyes. Glancing back down at the paper, she asked. "Where did you find this?"

"It was from Theletas's conference just now." Raquin took the paper from her, and hid it inside his tunic. "They threw the document in the fire, but that scrap survived. I don't think it's something they want anyone outside their circle to know about."

"Are you going to inform Sadarin about this too?"

"I actually wanted your opinion about that."

Temenir leaned back, looking thoughtful. Then she scratched her head, and glanced upward. "Perhaps you should bring the name to his attention," she said, "but until you find out more, it probably isn't of terribly great concern."

She fell silent, and Raquin took a seat on a cushion by the window. In the minutes that followed, the only sound was the roar of another Halictid outside. Then their thoughts were interrupted as the shouts of someone running up the stairs outside caught their attention. Frowning, Raquin opened the door just in time for them to hear a servant shout, "Lord Divathan has passed! The Hegemon is dead!"

Raquin shut the door, and he and Temenir looked at each other worriedly.

"And so it begins," he muttered softly. His sister nodded soberly.

...

* In the Cypnovan calendar, pT means "post-Taledrev" so it has been 718 years since the Helials left Cypnov. There are 14 Cypnovan months, Manghravas being the 7th, and 25 days to each month, so a Cypnovan year lasts roughly 350 days. One day on Cypnov lasts 26.5 Earth hours.

* * *

><p><strong>There's a new blog post: "Cypnov: Some Concept Art." It shows the design of the Radilians, as well as a more high-resolution image of the cover art. The link's on my profile, so don't forget to check that out.<strong>

**The first time I wrote this, I had several complaints that it was difficult to keep track of who's who, so I'm going to provide a list of important characters you can return to when you need it. Bolded are major characters. **

**I've also provided a list of geographic names you'll need to remember. **

**Character List**

**The Doctor  
><strong>**Rose "Amaranthine" Tyler  
><strong>**Donna Noble**

Divathan Theletas**, **_former Hegemon of Cypnov, father of Deljath and Sadarin Theletas (dies early on)  
><em>**Deljath Theletas, **_eldest son of Divathan Theletas, successor to the seat of the Hegemon._**  
><strong>Aervanyn**, **_Deljath's wife_**.  
><strong>**Sadarin Theletas, **_younger son of Divathan Theletas and brother of Deljath._

**Ferjhaal Davinathe, **_Chairman of the Yaldegan Secret State Police (Sestati), Foreign Minister of Yaldego, and First Minister to the Hegemon_**.****  
><strong>Sinadar Yadathrin**, **_Deputy Chairman of the Sestati_**.  
><strong>Captain Sarjeth, _A senior Sestati officer under Yadathrin's command_.  
><span>Tasanin Gredethan<span>, _A senior Sestati officer._  
><span>Captain Seret<span>, _A Sestati officer stationed at Shathar_.  
><span>Jernithan, Faletaos, Krendelthar, Strekfel, Extran, Talgavik, and Felthran<span>, _Sestati officers_

**Raquin Nahtavid**, _the Warlord of Achtari, one of Deljath's courtiers, and a friend to Sadarin Theletas_.  
><span>Temenir Nahtavid<span>, _Raquin's sister. _  
><span><strong>Delbadar Ervalon<strong>, _Raquin's fiancée._

**General Kadrev Aeshaan**, _Warlord of Axtarin, Air and Field Marshal of Yaldego._  
><span>General Batzesar, Colonel Kadran, Colonel Kalphlan, Colonel Geltrar<span>, _Yaldegan military officers under Aeshaan's command._  
><span><strong>Lieutenant Telghaim<strong>, _A military officer under Aeshaan's personal command._  
><span>Ex-Minister Kaladeth,<span> _Divathan Theletas's First Minister, predecessor to Davinathe._

Commander Breitheamh, Captain Castar, _Broman military officers_.  
><span>Generals Dalage and Kromald<span>, _High-ranking generals of Relash_.

Lord Onereigh Scirithar, _Overlord of Relash_  
><span>Lord Maset Feyathrin<span>, _Overlord of Capharon._  
><span>Councilors Daldain and Egbon<span>, _Advisors of Lord Scirithar._

Fedazir Ytrein, _A Capharon spy._  
><span>Mandahar<span>, _A Relashian intelligence agent_.  
><span>Crotar<span>, _A Relashian spy based in Shathar_  
><span>Iyezrin, Achfirin, Reulen, Kleri, Szaazra, Telfi, Kaasic, Ixtredir<span>, _Relashian intelligence agents._  
><span>Satra<span>, _A Moberian spy working for Crotar_.

Shafinok Glinfindil, _A Capharon scientist._  
><span>Saran, Achatzin<span>, _Moberian scientists in Sanandrias._

**Kabid Kaelis Dalbid**, _a Keiroid, Ambassadress from the planet Valdar._  
><span>Aldenar Malet Grenarad<span>, _Admiral of the Valdaran Armada._

Sedrilan Salestor, Gilbeldan, and Sirisar, _Yaldegan soldiers_.  
><span>Teledan<span>, _a Capharon guard_

Talevik Ainnor, _A Yaldegan physician._

**Important geographic regions of Cypnov**:

Maevraiga (a supercontinent in the western hemisphere)  
>North and South Dreithega (smaller continents in the eastern hemisphere)<p>

Countries in Maevraiga:  
><span>Yaldego (the seat of the Hegemons, with dominion over most of Cypnov)  
>Mober (a neighboring puppet country just south of Yaldego)<br>Brazim (a neighboring puppet country north of Yaldego).

Cities/Regions:  
>Gavarik (the capital city of Yaldego)<br>Gergnus (an important port city of Yaldego)  
>Shalden (a former Helial settlement in Yaldego)<br>Greyalden (a city near Shalden)  
>Sanandrias (the capital city of Mober)<br>Shathar (a prison in Mober)

Countries in the Dreithegan continents:  
><span>Capharon (the whole of North Dreithega, a country in rebellion against Yaldego)  
>Broma (located in South Dreithega, also in rebellion)<br>Relash (located in South Dreithega, neutral in the conflict, theoretically under Yaldego's rule, but in reality just as powerful and nearly independent).

Cities/Regions:  
>Genicapharon (the capital city of Capharon)<br>Achtari (a heavily forested region of Capharon)  
>Sidagon (an island near North Dreithega)<br>Kodiferan (a prison on Sidagon)  
>Izqavid (the capital city of Relash)<p>

**I think that should cover it. There are other names and places mentioned, but aren't as important to remember. I'll post a map on my next blog entry. **


	2. Chapter One: An Unsettling Dream

**_Starting here, from now on I will introduce chapters with journal entries or excerpts from memoirs (generally written much later) from major characters, most frequently Rose or the Doctor. These are either intended to set the mood of the chapter, or to explain some elements of the story which I couldn't fit in anywhere in the actual chapter. There also occasionally will be mentions of story arcs similar to those "Doctor Who" uses, like "Bad Wolf" from Series 1, or "Mr. Saxon" from Series 3. Yes, I do that too._**

**...**

Chapter One  
>An Unsettling Dream<p>

_From the Annals of Rose Amaranthine: _

"_I met the Doctor when I was nineteen years old. I traveled with him for two years. Then I lived in hell for ten thousand. Eventually I was able to break out of the Void, with the Doctor's help. Until the nightmare on Celephaïs, the greatest hell I'd ever been through was not the Void (because I was unconscious for most of it), but the weeks on the Tardis immediately after, just before my life on Cypnov. At that time, I was living in a constant reminder of who I was at the age of nineteen, but at the age of ten thousand I no longer knew who I was. To be reminded of who I __once__ was, the innocence of youth and of dreams which I could never return to, at that time was excruciating."_

* * *

><p>London, Earth<br>18 June 2009

To Donna Noble, normalcy was a once-cherished concept. However, the live style of being _not_ normal made her feel like she was truly part of something, and she wouldn't ever go back to her life before she met the Doctor. The least that could be said was that normalcy was a relative concept. There was "normal" human life, and then there was the pattern of life that she considered "normal" for the Doctor and his coterie.

It was this form of "normalcy" which found her back at her home in Chiswick, catching her breath after a far-fetched attempt to convince her mother and the neighbors that it was a ring of burglars she, the Doctor, and Rose Tyler managed to uncover, rather than a two-dimensional monster hiding in photographs and other pictures, which had taken to devouring various objects (and Tom Burbidge's cat), and absorbing the energies of the extra dimension. At least that's what Rose had explained to Donna after the Doctor's usual incomprehensible string of technobabble.

Donna's grandfather, of course, had correctly suspected aliens, and she spent the rest of the afternoon up the hill with him, explaining the truth. When she had finished, and she and Wilf shared a guilty chuckle over Burbidge's much-hated cat, Wilf then turned the discussion to Donna's life on the Tardis, especially in light of the re-entrance of Rose Tyler. Over time, Donna had formed a general idea of what was normal life on the Tardis. Rose's presence had disrupted that normalcy.

"She's just as bonkers as the Doctor," Donna told Wilf, "and as clever, although she doesn't show off her scientific and technical know-how as much."

"Sounds like the Doctor's met his match, though," Wilf commented, amused.

"I thought so too." Donna fidgeted on her stool, and Wilf frowned at the worry in his granddaughter's voice. "I met the Doctor right after he lost her, and he had nearly snapped. He was better when I met him again, but underneath all that cheek and energy you could tell he was still very sad. So when Rose turned up alive I thought things would get better for him."

"Haven't they?" asked Wilf.

Donna shrugged helplessly. "Lately the tension on the Tardis is so thick you could cut it with a knife."

Wilf raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing you don't mean sexual tension?"

Donna rolled her eyes. "I wish I did. It would make things so much simpler." She glanced toward the Tardis, which stood near the foot of the hill. "The Doctor's happier now, I think, but Rose isn't."

Wilf looked at her questioningly, but before either of them could say anything else, Donna saw the Doctor step out of the Tardis and gesture at the box while looking at her pointedly, indicating that they were ready to take off.

"Go on," Wilf told her. Then he smirked, and added, "They've got you to whip them into shape. I think things will get better before long."

Donna smiled, and got to her feet. "I sure hope so."

When she stepped inside the Tardis, Donna found the Doctor at the console, messing with the controls. As soon as she closed the door, the engines roared into life and the Doctor, finished, leaned back on the captain's chair, with his feet on the edge of the console.

"Where's Rose?" asked Donna.

"Went off to take a nap, I think. She said she was tired," the Doctor answered, but Donna hadn't missed the sudden stiffness in his demeanor as he spoke.

She growled in exasperation. "All right, spill. I'm not putting up with your moping on an empty stomach."

"Moping? Who said anything about moping? Time Lords do not _mope_," the Doctor sniffed.

Donna snorted derisively. "Your mother must have dropped you on your head as a baby, then, because you've been moping ever since I first met you."

The Doctor glared at her, and looked as though he intended to argue back, but then he deflated and looked downward.

"I'm worried about her," he finally admitted. "You didn't know Rose before we found her again, but trust me, she hasn't been herself in the whole time she's been back."

"I've already gathered that," Donna told him, exasperated. "It's only been a couple of weeks, Doctor. How can you expect otherwise? I've never been possessed for thousands of years by an out-of-control computer, but if I were, I sure as hell wouldn't be the same afterwards."

"I know, and I expected her to be hurting," the Doctor said, glancing towards the other rooms. "After she had that panic attack her first morning back on the Tardis, I was ready to be there at her side, to help her through her recovery and the loss of her family—that's what set off the panic attack, I think—but what happened next wasn't what I expected. As you know, the first thing she did once she had the chance was completely bury her past. She had the Tardis hide away all reminders of who she was before the Void, even memorabilia of her family. And you remember when you and Martha asked Rose about her family. She was upset and hurt at the reminder, but she didn't shed a tear."

Donna nodded, still feeling a little ashamed at their tactlessness. They knew instantly it was the wrong thing to bring up when her expression hardened and she looked away, giving a very short answer in an icy, clipped tone before changing the subject.

"I didn't know what else to do, so I decided to continue traveling, taking you and Rose to places. I hoped it would help her, but…" He shrugged helplessly.

Donna knew what he meant. While Rose had willingly gone on these trips, though she tried to hide it, the Doctor and Donna could tell that she hadn't shared their enthusiasm.

"She used to _love_ the traveling, though," the Doctor continued. "She couldn't get enough of it. But now, whenever we go somewhere, I can tell she's trying to enjoy it, but can't quite bring herself to. And then when we're not traveling, it feels like she's only here because she has nowhere else to go. We used to take breathers by watching movies or reading to each other in the library, or sometimes just plain laughing over a meal, but she doesn't do that anymore. She's no longer interested. Sometimes she'll lock herself in her room, or the library, and not come out for hours. Don't you see, Donna? None of it is like the Rose I remember, Donna. _None_ of it. She's hurt, damaged, and I don't know how to fix it!"

He fell silent, and sat back down, rubbing his forehead distractedly.

"She just needs time," Donna said cautiously. "Rose went through an ordeal that a few weeks on board the Tardis won't easily make up for. She needs to sort herself out."

The Doctor looked up, and Donna thought she saw a wetness in one of his eyes, but he blinked, and it was gone.

"I know," he whispered. "I shouldn't let it get to me, but it does. Rose always had this purity, for lack of a better word, that made her seem completely indomitable. Did you know that she once stood between me and a Dalek, shielding it from _me_? A Dalek, which, as it turned out, she'd put a bit of herself into, giving it emotions, stopping it from killing. No one had succeeded in doing that before then, but Rose she asked me what the hell I was turning into. She made me feel so small, a nineteen-year-old London girl. She would always say or do things that made me feel that way, because there was so much I'd forgotten. She saved me from myself that day, and many other times since, just because she had that quality."

"And now she's lost that innocence," Donna finished. He nodded, and she continued sympathetically, "I think that would always have happened. Rose would have aged anyway, though I don't think either of you expected her to age to ten thousand and still look like a flippin' twenty-year-old. Anyway, you're nine hundred and look like you're about thirty-five. Same diff."

The Doctor smiled in spite of himself.

"But I think the Rose you remember is still in there, somewhere," Donna added. "She just needs time."

The Doctor looked up. "Thanks, Donna."

She smiled, and then straightened. "Well, I'm all for dinner. How about some stir-fry? And you keep yourself and your sonic screwdriver away from the stove," she added sharply. "Seriously, who tries to make a toaster _fly_? But I'm not having you blow the stove up as well."

"Wouldn't dream of it," the Doctor lied.

* * *

><p>Cypnov<br>Achtari, Capharon  
>1 Talandras 718 pT<p>

Misty rain descended upon a landscape of grassy hills, visible only through a thin screen of fog which hid the distant forest-city of Genicapharon; a dirt road led through the hills, and Raquin flew overhead, his eyes fixed on the brown, winding ribbon before him. It was growing colder, he noticed as he wrapped his waterproof tunic more tightly around himself. _Capharon_… he thought to himself wearily. It was a beautiful country to look at, perhaps, but not the best place to live, and the cold was only one reason for that. The tyranny of the Sestati was another matter entirely.

The further he flew, the thicker he noticed the fog becoming, and before long, even the rolling hills faded from view; Raquin cursed at the delay, but with little choice in the matter, he began to descend, breathing in the water vapor as he did. Before long, his feet touched the ground with a soft splat, and he ran down the road a few feet to lose momentum from the flight. Then he stopped, and looked ahead, squinting through the mist. He was now near the forest. The base was somewhere around here, not actually in Genicapharon, but elsewhere, closer to his own lands and palace; but in this weather, it was very hard to tell precisely where he was.

He wandered off the road, his eyes fixed on the trees that became more and more visible, shivering slightly as he went. He cursed again; there was a reason that people seldom went outside during storms, and that reason became clear as Raquin violently shook himself, so that the water soaking his fathers sprayed everywhere. In the air, it was simply foggy; on the ground, it was raining sheets, and at this rate it would take hours for him to dry.

The gigantic Genthakl trees were now mere feet in front of him, and Raquin paused and perked up his ears, listening carefully. There was not a sound on the air. In all probability, there was not a single animal that ventured outside in this cold weather, but then again, Capharon Separatist guards were trained to work in complete silence. Raquin slowly walked through groves of smaller trees, sparing only passing glances to the big ones, not that it made a difference to look at them; the fog seemed to be as thick in the forest as it was outside. Then he thought he saw the outline of a crystallum growth just past one of the huge tree roots, and as he approached the crystals, he caught sight of another man sitting quietly on a log. The other was wearing the distinctive black synthetic armor of the Capharons, and Raquin slowly approached, his left hand raised in greeting.

The guard leapt to his feet and pointed a gun at Raquin, his expression one of great alarm. Raquin groaned inwardly as he raised both hands into the air; in his haste to report to the other Separatists, he had quite forgotten that he was still dressed in Yaldegan uniform.

"I'm one of Sadarin's associates," he told the guard, who snorted, and didn't lower his weapon.

"Then what's with the gold armor?" he demanded, pointing at the synthetic cuirass and matching helmet.

"Do you not recognize me?" Raquin snapped. "Lord Raquin Delminus Nahtavid of Achtari, at your service!"

The guard snorted again, his expression disbelieving. Raquin sighed. "If you want proof, go find Delbadar Ervalon, or still better, Sadarin himself."

The guard didn't look convinced, but he lowered his gun. "Come with me," he said irritably, "but I warn you, if Ervalon does not confirm your identity, I will shoot you myself."

Raquin ground his teeth indignantly and exasperatedly, indignant because of the humiliation of the situation, and exasperated because he knew that even were he not a Separatist, standard protocols required that he be kept alive but confined until the other Separatist leaders made a decision confirming him. But nonetheless, Raquin followed the guard past the crystallum and further down the forest path, not wanting to cause himself further trouble.

* * *

><p><em>Dreamed again tonight, nothing particularly exciting about this one: it was simply an entry from a records log, concerning the disappearance of a Void Ship called <em>_Ouroboros__, and the hijacking of another, the __Halcyon,__ by the Daleks. The rest was a series of calculations I won't bother recording. But it occurred to me the moment I woke from this dream, that I should not have been able to escape the Void, or even awaken. The __Eternal's__ fissure codes were locked, and there was no opening in the Void through which I could simply navigate. But just as importantly, I shouldn't have been awake at all. Nonetheless I was, and I did escape._

_I've tried to speculate how this happened. Grateful as I am for it, I find the matter nonetheless unsettling. _

Rose Amaranthine Tyler put her pen down, and leaned back against her chair, rubbing her eyes with her right hand wearily. She scanned through the journal entry, and the log entry, the words and data of which suddenly had flown from her memory as she slept, words unnaturally planted there. The human brain shouldn't be able to simply turn out information as needed, but hers was altered to do exactly that. She was a veritable walking Wikipedia.

A glance at her alarm clock told her that by human standards, it was three o' clock in the morning. Before she had fallen into the Void, Rose would have been out like a light at this hour; but that was a long time ago, when she didn't dream engrafted information.

She looked around the darkness of her room, reflecting that at least she _had_ slept this past night. In recent weeks, that was an accomplishment. She could hardly go a single night without reliving the Void Ship in her dreams. Every night, she could still hear the _Eternal_'s mainframe in her head, still muttering numbers; and she could see the library of Ethrae and the hallucinations therein, and hear words streaming through her head from alien databases; or else she'd see the halls of the Void Ship, hear its strange ambient pulse, and dream of people being reduced to ash simply because they were connected to her.

Reaching up, Rose rubbed her temple and cheek, as though the angry red marks from the cybernetic implants still bothered her. _I found a purpose. So must you._ Jack Harkness's words echoed in her mind again, as they had done repeatedly for two weeks. On their last day on Earth, Jack had asked her what she intended to do now. She hadn't replied. She felt that any purpose of hers eventually would be tied up to the return of the Taledrevan Empire, an inevitable event that could occur at any point in the future anywhere in the universe. For all she knew, they already had. But aside from this, Rose had no idea what to do next.

There was only one thing she was certain of: she needed to leave.

Rose had not yet told the Doctor, concerned about how he'd take it, but for the time being, the thought of returning to her old life on the Tardis almost repelled her. There were many reasons for this, but one of the more poignant was the Doctor's behavior toward her. Rose could tell that her reappearance in his life, and what she had gone through, had shocked and grieved him, but she also could tell that the Doctor was trying to cope with Rose and her alterations by carrying on as though nothing had changed, as though she had never fallen into the Void. He sometimes took the Tardis across the stars to continue his travels, probably in hopes that doing so would take Rose's mind off her problems, but it wasn't working.

Rose could bear these trips, even if she resented the Doctor's motives. What truly frustrated her was that everywhere they went, as well as on the Tardis, he had obviously taken it upon himself to watch her very closely and keep her comfortably distracted, as though he worried that she might fall apart at any second. She understood that he was trying to help her, but she would be more comfortable if he simply allowed her to cope in her own time.

In other words, the Doctor's behavior, the nightmares, the newly-found knowledge of the universe, and the pure frustration of simply not knowing what to do next made Rose feel confined and uncomfortable in the Tardis. Worse, if she wasn't frustrated, she lapsed into depression, because before the Battle of Canary Wharf, twenty-year-old Rose Tyler would not have harbored these thoughts in a thousand years. Ten thousand years, however, was plenty of time for such anger and restlessness to develop within Rose Amaranthine.

In short, Rose didn't even know herself anymore.

Jack had told her to find some long-term occupation for herself, one worthy of her abilities, but the trouble was that there was so much in her memory now, that made it difficult for her to sort through it all. For two weeks she'd been trying to do so, spending her free time in thought about the Taledrevan sector of space, quite distant from Mutter's Spiral, but close enough that the Helials had once put the Time Lords on their guard. The Taledrevan Empire was massive. From the Golden Orb, their elliptical home galaxy, they had moved outward, and conquered planets in dozens of other galaxies.

The death of their home star, and their planet Carthantine with the star, in addition to perpetual regeneration pushed the Helials even further outwards. They quickly found a new planet in a new star system, which they modified to resemble their old planet, and they named the star Taledrev after the old star. From there they moved outward with an aggression; only one race in history had ever rivaled such rapid expansion, and that was the Daleks. Looking back, it was unsurprising to Rose that the Helials disquieted even the Time Lords.

The Tardis hummed, and Rose felt her warm, soothing presence touch her mind and heart, relaxing her mind enough to lull her back into her sleep; after spending ten thousand years asleep, for all intents and purposes, Rose initially had been afraid to sleep; but the presence of the Tardis made it easier for her, and she submitted, resting her head in her arms on her desk.

_She lay supine on the examination table in a bright white room, seeing and hearing but unable to move or even think, only to listen. A man in the green robes of a scientist seemed to be watching her closely with a neutral expression, while a woman in the blue gown of a medic bent over, shining a light in her eyes. _

"_No reflexes," the woman observed. "There's no change from last week."_

"_The minds of lesser species are very fragile," the scientist postulated. "Exposure to nihility would damage one of our minds, let alone a human's."_

"_Damage?" the medic repeated incredulously. "More like destroy. Her neurons are all disconnected, her brain stem completely nonfunctional. She's in a state of almost total cerebral death."_

"_Nevertheless, the Imperator demands that we extract as much information from Amaranthine as possible." The scientist's expression was grim. "She could only have been pulled into Nonexistence if she had previous been through it, and only one with access to Time Lord, Dalek, or Helial technology could manage that. She may have the information Lord Drunnor seeks."_

"_An update on the progress of the Time War?" the medic deduced. When the scientist nodded, she looked at Amaranthine thoughtfully. _

"_Especially whether or not it's over yet," the scientist instructed. "The Imperator is especially eager to exit Nonexistence as soon as possible. After he found out that Av-Medra was left behind…"_

_The medic shook her head. "How do you just forget something like that?"_

"_Rhanet thinks it may have been stolen," the scientist speculated, "but I don't know who would have taken it. The Radilians couldn't steal something like Av-Medra. They wouldn't even understand what it is, let alone its value or what it does."_

"_Radilians?" the medic repeated. "They left it on Cypnov, then? I don't envy those present when Lord Drunnor found out."_

"_I don't think it's in any danger from the Radilians or from anyone from the nearby planets. Drunnor's probably more worried about how the Senate would react if it gets out that he even had one, let alone left it anywhere,"_

"_As if __that__ would ever stop Drunnor."_

_A machine emitted a strange ting. The medic turned around. Amaranthine couldn't tell what she was looking at, but after a moment, she said, "Something's wrong with her blood pH level. It's inhibiting her nutrition absorption. I think we've got her breathing too fast."_

Rose jerked awake and sat up, staring around wildly for a second before she remembered where she was. Rose frowned, rubbing her sore neck, and then looked at her clock, which told her that it was now six o' clock in the morning. What she'd just seen and heard puzzled her. Rose couldn't be sure whether or not it was a memory or merely a dream, but for a dream it was oddly detailed and consistent; and it seemed too familiar to her.

If it was a memory, then the Helials had accidentally left something called Av-Medra on Cypnov, something that belonged to Delvidir Taelmarr Drunnor, Imperator of the Vanguards, the Helial who made the decision to hide in the Void. Rose sat there in bed, raking her memory. The name "Cypnov" rang a bell, as did the word "Radilian," a planet in the Kalyptan Gyre and its indigenous species, which were once subjects of the Helials. But no matter what she tried, the name "Av-Medra" was utterly unfamiliar to her, which was odd. Rose couldn't recall everything she'd learned during her imprisonment at once; but usually if a certain term or concept was brought up, she could recall the information after considering it for a minute or two. But this brought her nothing, which meant either that it hadn't transferred into her mind, or that it was not in Eve's database. Which meant that it was top secret.

It was six in the morning but, curiosity overcame her fatigue, and she slid out of bed, exited the room, and made her way to the library. She could hear activity in the console room, and she supposed that the Doctor, as he usually did when his human companions turned in for the night hours, was messing around with the inner mechanisms of the Tardis. Rose turned a corner and entered the library, which lit up as soon as soon as she entered.

The Tardis library, like any room in the Tardis, had a unique ability to cater to its inhabitants' needs, and when Rose had started reading up on the Taledrevan Empire to try to hurry the process of sorting through the enormous collection of information left inside her head, she found a whole section filled with books on the Helials and their colonies. Rose browsed through the titles and eventually settled on an encyclopedia of Taledrevan technologies and innovations. A search through the A section, however, revealed nothing about "Av-Medra." Rose frowned, thinking over words in the Helials' language, but she couldn't think of any meaning.

When a perusal of numerous other books on the shelf revealed nothing, she gave up and then returned to the other main point of the memory, one she was more certain of. The book she had been looking at the night before, the second volume of _Sentient Systems of the Taledrevan Sector_, was still on the coffee table by the armchairs, but Rose headed back to the bookshelf and selected the index. Thumbing through the pages rapidly, she finally located the planet in question and dog-eared the page. She then put the index back and pulled out the fourth volume of the encyclopedia, before returning to the armchair. _Sentient Systems of the Taledrevan Sector_ was a very thick compendium which contained the names, astronomical locations, and brief summaries of intelligent alien races, and a quick glance at the title told Rose that this particular volume detailed the Kalyptan Gyre. Rose impatiently flipped through the pages until she finally found the entry she wanted:

_The planet Cypnov, second in the star system Verkata (located in the Kallarona arm of the galaxy) is a very mineral-rich planet, and party for that reason it is one of the Helials' most treasured colonies in the Kallarona sector. Almost since the colony was established, it has been one of the great industrial centers of the Kalyptan Gyre. _

_In terms of geography, Cypnov is a warm planet with varying climates, ranging from tropical to arid. It features three main continents: the smallest and most humid of these is North Dreithega. South Dreithega features two major climates, tropical and tundra. The supercontinent Maevraiga features the driest part of Cypnov, the Yaldegan Desert, which is separated by the Sunitoth Mountains from the humid Moberian region, from which it is thought that the planets indigenous sentient species, the Radilians, originated. _

_The Radilians have always struck other races with fascination for their vibrant culture and for their avian appearance. They are among the finest natural fliers in the galaxy, and have a wingspan of up to nine feet. Their culture and history is a long and proud one, featuring flourishing artistic and literary movements, and surprisingly sophisticated philosophies, atypical of their stage of advancement. In terms of technological achievement, however, they were still in a primitive stage prior to the Taledrevan conquest, limited to their star system. In spite of this disadvantage, the Radilians, being a very proud race, have a reputation for being some of the most difficult Taledrevan subjects to control._

* * *

><p>"Statement: You came here to sabotage Sadarin Theletas's plan of operation. True, or false?"<p>

Raquin repressed a growl. He'd seen these proceedings before; he'd even written some of the questions, but never had he imagined that he, the Warlord of Achtari, would have to go through them himself, with his hands bound behind his back, and his arms, wings, and feet tied to a chair, in a cold forest on his own domain. He supposed that Sadarin must have recruited new units, likely from outside of Achtari, while he was away, and perhaps this was the reason they hadn't recognized him.

"Answer true or false!" the second guard all but shouted. He was slightly taller and more muscular than the first Raquin had encountered, and he had leaned so close that that they were almost nose-to-nose.

"False," Raquin hissed angrily.

None of the guards looked moved. One of them made a move forward, and for a moment, Raquin thought he was going to hit him, but the blow didn't' come. The largest guard shot the attacker a dirty look, and signaled for him to back down.

"Statement," he continued. "You are currently in the employ of the warlord Deljath Theletas, and you have been sent here to spy upon his brother. True or false?"

"False." Raquin looked at the door behind he guards, but it was tightly shut. He turned back to the guard, who continued.

"Statement: You are currently in the employ of Lord Theletas's chief advisor, Ferjhaal Davinathe, who has sent you to spy upon…"

"False!" a voice interrupted loudly. Raquin exhaled in relief as a woman, also in black armor but wearing a red tunic underneath, entered the room. She looked him over, her face one of great annoyance, before turning to the guards.

"Madam Ervalon?" asked one of them nervously.

"Do you not know your own warlord when you see him, Teladan?" she demanded. "This is indeed Lord Nahtavid. Return to your posts."

The larges guard, Teladan, looked horrified. Turning to Raquin, he stammered, "My humblest apologies, my lord…"

"Continue with your services faithfully, and we'll not punish you," Delbadar Ervalon cut across his apologies evenly, and effectively silenced Raquin's angry retort.

The guards quitted the room, all looking mortified. As Raquin watched them leave, Delbadar stared to untie him.

"Did you enjoy that?" she asked, now sounding amused. "You wrote half of that procedure, but I wasn't aware that you being practiced on was part of the drill."

Raquin didn't laugh. "Don't tell Sadarin. This is embarrassing enough as it is."

She chuckled as she moved onto the next knot. "The Warlord of Achtari, coming all the way over here to Capharon, still dressed in Yaldegan uniform, and consequently ending up tied to a chair in his own domain? What's to keep me from entertaining Sadarin with it?" She smiled. "You don't need to worry, though. Not immediately, anyway. Sadarin's out. Ah, there you go."

Raquin stood as the last of the knots loosened. He rubbed his wrists, wincing. "Who were those guards, anyway? Never seen them here before."

Delbadar gave him a long-suffering look. "They were exiled from Brazim a month ago for 'activities unbecoming of a citizen of Brazim', and last week Sadarin found and recruited them while you were in Gavarik. As is usually the case with new guards, they are—shall we say—a little zealous in their duty to the warlord.

"You're telling me."

Delbadar smirked and crossed the room to a cabinet, from which she withdrew a black cuirass and a matching crested helmet.

"Here," she said as she tossed him the armor. "Get out of that outfit, before somebody shoots you." As Raquin pulled off the gold cuirass, she asked, "So, are you going to tell me under what circumstances you'd forgotten that you were in enemy uniform?"

"I've just come from Divathan Theletas's funeral. I was in a terrible hurry." Raquin fitted the black armor across his chest. "Didn't even stop by my palace. I need to tell Sadarin as soon as possible."

Delbadar frowned, and sat on the bench next to the cabinet. "So, the Hegemon is indeed dead? We thought it might be one of those rumors."

"He died three days ago." Raquin finished with the last latch on his cuirass, and took a seat next to her. "I'd have left earlier, but as you can imagine, everyone in the palace was required to remain for a few days."

Delbadar leaned back, looking wary. Raquin nudged her hands, trying to offer comfort. "So what's going to happen now?" she asked.

"Deljath's coronation is next week," Raquin sighed. "Of course, that means I'll have to depart for Gavarik in a couple of days. They'll expect me there."

"Sadarin should be back before then," Delbadar assured him. "I think he just went to survey the training grounds." She paused for a moment, then added in worry, "He's going to try to persuade Lord Feyathrin to make… an arrangement… with the Overlord of Broma."

Raquin froze.

"Is he mad?" he whispered. "If the Sestati finds out…"

"The Sestati will crack down on Capharon if they find out Sadarin's even alive," Delbadar pointed out. "But they won't find that out, or about the proposed alliance, unless Feyathrin blows it."

"They'd better ensure that he doesn't, then," Raquin replied. "Sadarin may have Feyathrin's sympathy, but now that Deljath Theletas has inherited Cypnov's most powerful military position, if one spy tips him off…"

He broke off; there was no more to be said. Both of them knew exactly what the consequence would be.

* * *

><p>When the Doctor and Donna arrived at the kitchen the next morning, they found Rose already there. Her back was to the Doctor and Donna, but without turning around she told them "Good morning," and continued her activities. The Doctor looked over the myriad of ingredients packages Rose had out, some of which he barely recognized, and the mess of a greenish-brown dough-like substance she was kneading. "Whatcha doin'?" he asked cheerfully, leaning on the counter.<p>

Rose shrugged. "Cooking."

Donna stared at the dough. "What is it?" she asked skeptically. "Because if that's supposed to be bread, you'd better explain why it's green and why you're putting extracted proteins in it…" She glared at the ingredient bottles. "Chemical food," she snorted in disgust. "Might make me grow a second head, or summat."

Rose hesitated. "If you must know, it's a Helial processed/condensed food that they developed to keep the race fed," she explained. "They called _aren saol_, which contains all the essential nutrients condensed thickly enough that a single wafer per meal is enough to keep a Helial from starving. For the appetite, you know? Imagine a whole species that has to eat that much. Seriously, this stuff could solve starvation problems on Earth. I don't imagine it would take much more than a nibble to feed a human."

"Lembas bread?" the Doctor joked.

Rose smiled at the Middle-Earth reference. "If you prefer to call it that."

Donna, seeing a small pile of finished wafers cooling by the toaster oven, grimaced. "More like Soylent Green." But she required little further explanation, after the past couple of weeks.

Adapting to the changes in her biology had proven to be a hassle for Rose and for the others. Agelessness sounded wonderful to humans, but aside from the issues of simply living too long, there was an additional problem: it required a _lot _of energy, more than Rose, or any human, was in the habit of consuming. At her first proper meal since the surgery, Donna had been astounded when Rose started her fifth helping. "Bloody hell, Rose, I get that you're a bit too thin, but keep that up and you'll gain so much weight even the Tardis won't be able to move."

"No, she won't," the Doctor dryly remarked. Looking at Rose, he observed, "Most of that goes into sustaining the regenerations, right? You see, Donna, any regenerating species needs a fairly constant energy source, and the Helials, who rejuvenate their entire cellular structure about twice a week, require at least four times as much food each day as a human. No calorie goes unused. Since Rose regenerates like that, she could eat ten hamburger combos every day for ten years, and she wouldn't gain a pound."

Rose grinned apologetically while a glowering Donna told her, "I bloody _hate_ you."

The Doctor smirked in amusement at the memory, but as he watched Rose make the "Soylent Green," he frowned. "What are you making that for, anyway?" he asked. "The Tardis can supply more than enough food for you."

"Apart from the fact that the amount I can eat annoys Donna to no end?" Rose asked with a raised eyebrow. When the Doctor merely returned her expression, she told him, "I was going to tell you as soon as I was done here. This morning I remembered something, and it might be important. I need you to take me somewhere."

"Brilliant!" said the Doctor. "Where are we going?"

"You know where the Kalyptan Gyre is, right?" asked Rose.

The Doctor pretended to look offended. "I know where _everything_ in the universe is… well, _almost _everything," he amended when Donna coughed disbelievingly. "But anyway, yeah. Humans call it Holmberg III. Haven't ever been around there, so this'll be fun."

"Well, it will be interesting, that's for sure," Rose told him. "I think the Helials left something there. It upset the Imperator. I don't know what it is exactly, but I think someone should look into it, because it sounded dangerous, the sort of thing you don't want to leave lying around."

The Doctor face broke into a maniacal grin. "Sounds good."

Rose couldn't help but feel amused at his enthusiasm, although she had a sneaking suspicion that he was masking distress at something; he'd carried an aura of it when he'd entered the kitchen. But she chose not to concern herself with that now. "Well, then, let me tell you a bit about this planet."

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Because of a time constraint, I may not be able to post this weekly or bi-weekly, as I did with "Eve of the Eternal." I'll do my best to have a new chapter at least every two weeks, though. _**

**_As promised, I've posted a map of Cypnov on the "Perennials" blog. I highly recommend looking at it. Feel free to keep it on hand as a jpg file on your computers. It might help you to follow the story. Remember, the link's on my profile page. _**


	3. Chapter Two: Salesats and Sestati

_**A/N: As is my usual habit, I post a chapter when I finish a chapter (I've completed about nine in the Cypnov revision now), or every two weeks, if I am able. Enjoy. **_

Chapter Two  
>Salesats and Sestati<p>

_From the journals of Rose Amaranthine: _

"_Cypnov is like Earth in a lot of ways; they are at a similar distance from their respective stars and they are of similar size and composition. Both have a wide variety of different climates and habitats, and roughly 70% the surfaces of both planets are covered in water. Both have a sentient indigenous species, although the Radilians are wildly different from humans in both anatomy and external appearance. But most importantly both are very politically and ethnically divided, and peoples from both planets have experienced a great deal of pain and subjection by imperialist races and cultures. Cypnov has a rich cultural tradition; it also has a long history of great pain and suffering."_

* * *

><p>A calm breeze drifted silently through the dried river valley, the only sound apart from the occasional sounds of animal life. It wasn't a very large or open place, big enough to house a town but not much more. The dry riverbed wound its way through the flat flood plain, only flowing in times of spring when the runoff comes down the surrounding mountains. Cloud cover masked the sunlight, but even that did not lessen the heat of the late summer season that bore down upon the landscape. The scene was a serene yet strange place, with a repressed aura of ancientness and of tribulation like the many sites and wonders that lie scattered across Cypnov, a part of Yaldego that had been relatively undisturbed through the ages, from the Radilians' earliest days through the Helials' conquest, to the present times.<p>

Loose grains of dirt swept across the land as another gust of wind breathed through the grass, almost masking an eerie, new and totally foreign sound that seemed to emanate from nowhere, the revs of a strange, unearthly engine. Then it appeared, a blue object no larger than an agrarian storage shed, like a wooden, rectangular prism, each side featuring two small windows.

Then the box's double door opened, and Rose Tyler stepped out of the Tardis, wearing a rucksack on her back, and surveying the scene before her. Donna Noble stepped out next, also looking around.

"Cypnov," Rose declared.

Donna looked around in disgust. "Looks like the Doctor's landed us in the middle of nowhere again. Probably not where he intended to land, either."

"Oi!" called an indignant voice behind her, and Donna turned and raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to deny it. "My driving is fine," he defended himself. "Usually."

"Don't scold him too soon," Rose told Donna. She was looking around the landscape. "Mountains and desert together mean the Sunitoth Mountains, in Yaldego, which is the driest region of the planet. Dried river valley, and if I'm right, this is actually roughly where I wanted to end up. It used to be the site of one of Cypnov's largest Helial cities."

Donna stared around the dusty—and very empty—landscape. "You sure we're in the right spot? Doesn't look like there's ever been anything here."

Rose, however, didn't appear to be listening. She had clambered onto a rock, and was scrutinizing the desert stretching out before her.

"Have you got binoculars?" she asked him.

"Sure." The Doctor reached into one of his pockets and produced a pair, which he handed to her. She turned to look back at the valley.

"Yep, thought so," she said, squinting through the binoculars. "Have a look."

The Doctor took them and peered into the flood plain, but he couldn't see any sign of Helial civilization.

"Up a bit," Rose told him. "Look at the mountains over that way."

He looked in the beckoned direction, and after a moment he caught sight of an edifice, just visible, up on the mountainside. He couldn't quite make out its shape, but the forty-ninth century binoculars revealed the shimmering outline of a perception filter. Had they been looking without the binoculars, they likely wouldn't have seen it at all.

"And I take it there's no chance that the indigenous people built that?" he asked.

Rose shook her head. "The Radilians shouldn't be nearly advanced enough to have perception filters, and the Helials hardly share their technology."

"So there are people here?" Donna asked. "What are they like?"

"Not sure," Rose answered quietly. "I'm not completely certain, but I'm guessing that it's been at least a few hundred years since the Helials left their empire, and thus the Radilians could be a completely different civilization from what they were before. In fact, I'm betting they are."

"The abrupt abandonment of an empire often leaves devastation in its wake," the Doctor mused.

"Exactly." Rose handed him back the binoculars. "Since I don't know what to expect, however, I'm not too keen on encountering them. I think it would be better to just get this thing quickly without getting noticed."

"And what are the chances of us _getting_ noticed?" Donna asked.

"Hopefully very little," Rose told her. "But I don't see any sign of Radilian civilization around here. Come on."

"So what are we looking for?" the Doctor asked Rose.

"No idea," she admitted. "But let's just head towards that building for starters."

Before she could move off, however, a cloud shifted and sunlight seemed to pierce through them like an X-ray, causing all three of them to shut their eyes at the sudden brightness and hold up their hands to block it. The Doctor took some sunglasses from his pocket, and put them on, watching Rose intently, and waiting for her to move or say something for another moment, until their thoughts were interrupted by a yelp beside them.

Rose and the Doctor looked at Donna, and saw that she had leapt backwards, her eyes fixed on an animal that was watching them intently. The creature was about the size of a mule, and had a similar equine build, but its head and ears looked more like a wolf's. It had long, curved horns like an impala's, and enormous, feathered wings which the Doctor estimated to have a span of roughly twelve feet. The creature had a coat of light brown feathers, and its face and neck had streaks of bright red. Its feet were also somewhat avian, thick dark skin exposed at the knee, but its claws were so large and so close together that its feet almost resembled a cloven, three-toed hoof.

The creature pawed at the ground softly as Donna backed away, her eyes wide with surprise and alarm. Rose, on the other hand, approached the creature and reached out a hand to it. The others watched nervously as she started slowly stroking the creature's head, and it closed its wrinkled eyes lazily, as though it were enjoying her touch.

"What is it?" asked Donna in amazement.

"It's a Salesat," Rose informed her in a matter-of-fact tone. "Don't worry, they're harmless. Yeah, it might take a bite out of you if you really annoyed it, but they're usually pretty docile. The Radilians domesticated them tens of thousands of years ago. They're sort of like the horse to the Radilians… or the dog, I guess. Or both." As if to demonstrate this, Rose reached down and held up a rope that had been tied around its snout and neck, like a bridle.

Turning her attention back to the Salesat, she asked, "Where'd you come from, eh?"

The beast merely snorted in reply, and continued pawing the ground. Rose smiled slightly.

"This raises the possibility that there's some sort of settlement nearby, if one of these things are wandering around," the Doctor mused. "Especially if it's got a rope on it. It must belong to someone. If you want to avoid the people here, we'd better get moving."

Rose nodded. "I think we should get some water from the Tardis," she said. "We're going to need it."

* * *

><p>Once they set off, it didn't take long for Donna to realize that wandering around a desert was nothing like what one saw in westerns. Rose led them down the path further into the valley, but it appeared to be quite a distance to the Helial edifice on the other side, and the sun (Rose had mentioned that it was called Verkata by the inhabitants) beat down upon them now that the clouds had shifted, heating the valley even more; that along with its bright light made Donna feel tired and light-headed.<p>

The dust and dry air didn't help. Every time someone stumbled, or slid down the slope of a hill, or a gust of wind swept through, a cloud of dust would follow. The only other desert Donna had ever set foot in was Egypt, but she had been in an air-conditioned bus for most of it, and the whole time it had been cloudy, and had even rained a little. Donna had always assumed that walking through a desert was like the sandy terrain of Egypt or the beach, but this dust was just dry, gritty soil. It had none of the coarse texture of sand, and it got into her shoes and between her toes, the grit rubbing uncomfortably upon her sin. Worse, when it was swept into the air, she could smell and taste it; it made her mouth and throat feel dry, and the complete lack of moisture in the air made her nose burn and her eyes water.

To make matters more worrisome, the Salesat seemed to be following them, probably curious about their unfamiliar form or scent or other, and the longer it remained with them, the more likely they were to run into its owner. Rose and the Doctor occasionally turned around to encourage it to stop and go home, but without success.

Donna looked at the others, both of whom seemed to be handling the desert environment better. She was clueless to how Rose, who was wearing a black jacket, a green shirt, and black slacks, or the Doctor, dressed in his usual suit and coat, could stand the heat, but it didn't seem to slow them down. The Doctor was wearing a straw hat as well as his sunglasses, something that had amused Donna at first, but now the latter suddenly had to hand it to the Doctor for putting them on.

"What are the aliens like here, if they can stand to live in this place?" Donna called out to Rose, who paused and turned to look at her.

"You all right?" she asked in concern, when she saw Donna's pink face and heavy breathing.

"I've got a headache," Donna told her, massaging her temples to no avail.

The Doctor handed her a water bottle. "Drink some of this," he told her sternly. "In a place like this, headaches are a sign that you haven't been drinking enough."

"We've only been out here for half an hour!" Donna protested.

The Doctor shook his head. "Doesn't matter. You can dehydrate very quickly out here, and that's made even more dangerous by the fact that you may not even realize you need water."

"Well, you're the one who landed us here," Donna snapped. "I don't have the endurance of a Time Lord or a Helial, so you can't expect me to completely keep up with you in this."

The Doctor sighed in exasperation. "There are plenty of humans who live in similar environments," he protested. "They manage just fine."

"Well I don't!" Donna shot back. She then took a swig from the water bottle. "Go on then. What are the people like?"

Rose growled impatiently. "I already said, I don't know."

"I mean what do they look like?" asked Donna. "If we're trying to avoid being noticed, I probably should know what to look out for. So what are they?"

"Equipped to live in harsher environments," Rose deadpanned.

"Apart from that!"

Rose paused, considering. After a moment, she was only able to say, "They're a flying race, similar in a lot of ways to birds back on Earth. They have blue feathers, so they should stand out in this place."

After another few minutes, Donna needed to sit down, and Rose couldn't blame her. Travels with the Doctor had taken her to deserts before, but the experience didn't lessen the discomfort. She sat down next to Donna and took off her rucksack while the Doctor remained standing, and she closed her eyes for a moment, wishing she'd brought sunglasses too, and that she'd worn something besides the black jacket. After she'd hidden away all her old stuff, Rose had spent hours in the wardrobe trying to find things to suit her tastes, which had changed a great deal since Canary Wharf; this was one of the few outfits she found, which she felt comfortable wearing. Whatever else she could find, she had put into her rucksack along with other supplies. But she suspected that her Helial regenerative ability had something to do with her handling the temperature better. She had better endurance now.

The Salesat paused and sat down too, making strange guttural noises as it did. Beside Rose, Donna sneezed violently in the sunlight.

"Not exactly Clint Eastwood, this, is it?" she asked irritably, rubbing her nose. Rose could only give an apologetic shrug.

Next to them, the Doctor began stroking the Salesat's glossy brown feathers. "It's a beautiful animal," he commented.

"It doesn't look very well built for flight," Donna remarked.

"Neither do bees, but they're perfectly good fliers," the Doctor pointed out.

At that moment, said animal stood and started shaking dust off its body violently. Rose stood as well, and started walking to their left.

"Oh, do we have to start again already?" groaned Donna.

"You could always ride the Salesat while it's following us," the Doctor pointed out as he helped her to her feet.

Donna looked like she was about to retort when they heard a loud click behind them, the all too familiar sound of a gun being cocked. Instinctively, the Doctor raised his hands into the air, and beside him, he saw Donna and Rose do the same, Donna's expression one of surprise and Rose's of exasperation.

Then a rough, accented voice behind them commanded, "You will all turn to face me, and place your hands on your heads."

The Doctor obeyed, and turned to see an extraordinary creature. It was, as Rose had told them, an avian species like the Salesat, but it stood upright like humans, only a head shorter than Rose or Donna. It had a set of wings of a span he estimated to be seven or eight feet, and smooth, turquoise feathers, except at the taloned hands and feet, where he could see dark, leathery skin. The Radilian also had a flat, almost dinosaur-like face, also coated with feathers, and ears shaped like the fins of a fish. But its most striking feature was the thick, stiff tail, which arched behind its back like a scorpion's tail, tipped with a leathery, oval pouch.

There were five of them, all lined up and pointing guns at them. They were dressed in gold-colored synthetic armor, scaled cuirasses were worn over blue tunics, and they wore spiked helmets like the German Pickelhauben. One of them, presumably the one which had spoken, was standing closer to them than the others, and wore a medallion over his breastplate which featured an insignia of several colored triangles and the word "Sestati." This one, probably the leader, was pointing his gun directly at the Doctor's face.

"Put your hands on your head," he repeated harshly, and the Doctor saw Rose obey quietly, and he and Donna did the same. The Radilian stepped back, and began barking out orders to the rest of his men; moments later, the Doctor, Rose, and Donna found themselves being led up the path, their hands still on their heads. As they struggled up the dusty path, Donna looked at Rose.

"What a warm welcome," she said sarcastically. "You didn't tell me that they were this friendly."

"Be fair," the Doctor said cheerfully. "We aren't exactly a common sight on this planet."

"Is this really how we treat aliens back on Earth?" Donna looked disgusted.

"There's a perfectly logical explanation for this, and it's not all xenophobia," Rose told Donna. "The Radilians have seen plenty of aliens before, including two other humanoid races from within fifty light years of here, but we arrived in a tiny, materializing spaceship, not too far from the site of a former Taledrevan settlement, and they're not happy about that."

Donna looked confused. "Meaning?"

Rose smiled grimly. "They think we're Helials."

* * *

><p>Rose fidgeted slightly in her seat, trying and failing to find a comfortable position; it was a difficult feat, considering that her hands were cuffed behind her back, and she couldn't see anything. She twisted slightly in an attempt to twist her arms as much as was anatomically possible, but try as she might, she just couldn't get feeling back into the fingers of her right hand; for the first time since the Void Ship, she was grateful that her left hand was prosthetic and had no blood circulation. But instead of the relief she was looking for, she felt the barrel of a gun jab uncomfortably into her shoulder, and a sharp voice ordered her to keep still; it was only due to the guard's close proximity that Rose could hear him over the roar of the ornithopter.<p>

_Typical_, she thought. _Not only seen, but arrested after only a half hour or so. _

She, the Doctor, and Donna had been stuck inside the aircraft for about an hour now, but she supposed that at least this was better than being marched across the desert. The guards had done that for what felt to their prisoners like an eternity, with their hand son the back of their heads. Rose had felt sweat running down the back of her neck and also her skin beginning to sunburn. By the time they mercifully reached the ornithopter, she began to feel faint and was itching to rid herself of the uncomfortable sensation of grit and dirt in her shoes, ears, eyes, and even her nose. Beside her, the Doctor appeared to be doing well, but Donna, unfortunately, not so much. As the Radilian guards told them to halt, Donna's face had become very red, and she looked dizzy, but there was no sign of sweat on her skin.

As she sank onto a rock, her head in her hands, the nearest guard tipped her head back and poured cool water onto her face and mouth from a pouch. Donna had coughed and spluttered, but a moment later she looked a little stronger. The Doctor bent over her, concern evident in his eyes.

"She's got heat stroke," he told Rose.

Rose shook her head. "It's my fault. We shouldn't have come so far."

"I'm fine," Donna told them in annoyance. "I just need a rest, that's all."

At that moment, the captain barked, "Line up, you three!"

"But Donna's sick!" the Doctor shouted back indignantly.

The captain's face contorted into a scowl, and he stepped forward, but then Donna forced herself to her feet, swaying for a second, before shooting the Doctor a dirty look. "Don't make this worse on my account!" she snapped. "Do what they say!"

Feeling that it was pointless to do otherwise, the Doctor and Rose obeyed the commander's orders and lined up next to Donna. The Doctor then turned his attention to the Halictid, an enormous ornithopter with a twenty-foot wingspan, the four gigantic metal wings glittering with dark blue panels. It looked somewhat like a colossal dragonfly.

"What a beauty!" the Doctor breathed. "There's an art to constructing ornithopters, you know! Solar panels on the wings to keep the batteries charged, am I right?" he asked Rose. "And I'd say that looks like a fission engine—oi!"

The Doctor's technobabble ended with a shout of protest as the guard stepped behind him and grabbed both his wrists, pulling them behind the Time Lord's back before cuffing him. Two others had simultaneously done so to Rose and Donna as well. The Doctor glared at them. "Where are you taking…"

But at a gesture from the captain, a guard pulled a burlap sack over the Doctor's head, cutting off his question. Rose watched as they pushed him up the ramp and into the Halictid before putting another sack over Donna's head. A second later, Rose heard another guard step behind her and then her vision went dark as they blindfolded her as well.

Now here they were, still blindfolded and cuffed, sitting helplessly in the deafening ornithopter and awaiting their fate. Nobody said anything, partly because Rose wasn't sure exactly where the Doctor and Donna were seated, and partly because there was too much noise to hear each other. Rose sighed in frustration, and leaned back into her seat, feeling her right hand go numb. At this rate, both her hands might end up as mechanical replacements if this went on much longer.

As it happened, it wasn't very long before Rose felt the Halictid slow and start to descend, but all she could do was wait. As the roar began to die down, she could hear the Radilians more clearly.

"Base to Captain Sarjeth, report," cracked a voice on radio somewhere near what Rose assumed was the cockpit.

The captain spoke up. "This is Sarjeth. Halictid 78-90 descending on Helipad Four."

As he spoke, Rose felt the vehicle lurch as it touched ground. A strong, clawed hand then grabbed her shoulder and pulled her to her feet, before leading her forward, though she couldn't tell in what direction. She tripped on what felt like seats as she walked, before the guard turned to her left, pulling her with him. She then felt herself descend down the ramp, and felt sunlight on what little exposed skin she had.

She didn't know how long she walked blindfolded like this. Knowing time, what felt like hours was probably only a few minutes, but she kept walking, wincing from the Radilian's grip and occasionally hearing the disjointed phrases from bystanders. Then she felt a sudden coolness, and guessed that she had been taken inside a building.

A moment later, she heard the guard warn her, "Stairs," and then she tripped over a step, landing painfully.

"Get up!" snapped the guard, and Rose rolled backwards into a sitting position, and forced herself to stand.

"This would be much easier if you'd take the blindfold off," she said calmly, but the sack muffled her voice, and the guard ignored her. Rose moved her left foot forward, feeling around before she found the stair and started to slowly climb, allowing her captors to guide her. She counted the steps as she went, and when she reached twenty-five, the floor went level and she was pulled to her right. A few minutes later she heard a door open, and she was led past it before the brought her to a halt. Then she felt fingers fiddling with the drawstring at her neck, and a second later a rush of cool air fell on her face as the blindfold came off.

"Hello, Rose!" the Doctor said jocularly. "He was standing right next to her, grinning in spite of their situation. Rose didn't respond as she felt one of the guards take the handcuffs off her wrists. She winced, rubbing her right wrist, and she glanced at the Doctor to see the guard uncuff him too. They were standing in a small room, which contained nothing more than a mattress, a bench under the barred window, and a small writing table with a stool. The only decoration in the room was the rug on the floor. Donna was sitting on the bench, her hands already uncuffed.

"You three will remain here until the colonel can speak to you," the guard informed them in a no-nonsense voice.

"Who's he?" asked Rose.

"Colonel Yadathrin, head of the Sestati," the guard told her, looking irritated at having been spoken to, before stepping outside and slamming the door shut. A soft click told them that he had locked the door, and Rose and the Doctor looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"Well, that's one way to get to know these aliens," Donna said sardonically. "How far do you think they took us?"

The Doctor shrugged. "We were in that ornithopter for exactly sixty-three minutes and twenty-two seconds, so we're definitely miles from our starting point."

Donna groaned. "How are we gonna get back to the Tardis?"

"They think we're Helials," Rose reminded her as she took a seat on the mattress. "If they find the Tardis, they'll have taken her somewhere." She frowned, thinking over all that had happened. "What's the Sestati? Some kind of police force?"

The Doctor shrugged as he sat down next to her. "You tell me. You've been doing the research."

Rose shook her head. "I told you already, I don't know. Anything could have happened in the six hundred years or so since the Helials left." She sighed, and scooted backwards until she was leaning against the concrete wall. "Fat lot of good that is."

The Doctor put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"Well, if they think we're Helials, they're probably going to interrogate us," Donna said. "Then we can find out what the Sestati is, and maybe I can give them a piece of my mind. That had to be the worst air travel I've ever endured."

But Rose shot her a severe look. "Donna, I know it's against your nature, but you're going to have to hold your tongue here. You too, Doctor. They don't look that powerful, but a Radilian could easily kill a human in a split second if he wanted to." Rose pointed at the door, where she assumed there to be a guard standing outside. "You saw the tails?" she asked. "Did you notice the thing at the end of the tail?"

The Doctor and Donna both nodded slowly.

"That pouch can fire razor-sharp barbs," Rose said quietly, "which are coated with a substance thousands of times more toxic than cyanide."

Donna looked shocked at that statement, but after a moment, she asked, "Why do they need guns then?"

"They're immune to the toxin. It was really a self-defense against predators and for hunting prey in primordial times. But for fighting among themselves, they have to resort to other means. It's lethal to most other carbon-based life forms, though I'm pretty sure the Helials, because of their regeneration cycle, were the only known race that could survive it."

At that moment, the door opened and a guard entered. Donna kept a wary eye on the guard's tail as he looked at each of them in turn, then pointed to the Doctor.

"You, come with me," he commanded. "The colonel requests your presence."

The Doctor nodded and stood. "I'll see you later," he told them quietly.

* * *

><p>Colonel Yadathrin's office wasn't a large one. There was barely enough room for a few guests among the shelves and the desk in the center of the room, and what the Doctor guessed was a Cypnovan computer, judging from the screen and the pad of letters and numbers; but nonetheless the two guards pulled him into the office and sat him down on a stool by the desk, where the colonel himself sat.<p>

"Leave us," he told the guards, who obediently exited the room without a word.

Yadathrin was thus far the largest Radilian the Doctor had seen, standing at least five and a half feet tall, perhaps closer to six feet, and he had piercing gray eyes, which the Doctor found rather unnerving. The colonel wore a black tunic with several clasps and metals attached to it, probably signifying rank and achievement, but what really drew the Doctor's attention was the brooch on Yadathrin's shoulder that showed five triangles and the words _Yaldegan Secret State Police. _

"Sestati," the Doctor mouthed the abbreviation as he read the words repeatedly, suddenly realizing the full scope of the situation they were in. Yadathrin looked at the Doctor for a moment, his eyes narrowed into what appeared to be an expression of astonishment and curiosity, but unlike the other Radilians so far, there wasn't an ounce of fear in those eyes.

"You did not realize that we are the secret police?" Yadathrin asked calmly. While his eyes and build were clearly very intimidating to other Radilians, he spoke in a warm, reassuring voice, which probably became very useful in interrogations, the Doctor thought dryly.

The Time Lord shook his head in reply to the colonel's question. He'd had encounters with such organizations in the past (including a particularly nasty incident in 1971 with the Stasi in the GDR), and knew from experience that saying the wrong thing at the wrong time with these people could easily result in a beating or a bullet in the kneecaps.

Apparently not one to beat around the bush, Yadathrin picked up a sheet of green paper from his desk and looked at it carefully before elevating his eyes to meet the Doctor's.

"State your name and purpose."

The Doctor answered quietly, "The Doctor… I'm a traveler."

Yadathrin's pupils contracted. It felt like a raised eyebrow. "A Vanguard?"

His eyes not leaving the Radilian's, the Doctor told him, "I am not a Helial."

Yadathrin ignored this completely. Turning his eyes back to the paper, he said, "Captain Sarjeth reports that your footprints led them to a blue box, which a farmer reported had simply appeared like a teleport. The box was transferred to headquarters shortly after you and the other prisoners. This is your ship?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, impressed by Yadathrin's knowledge, but didn't answer. The colonel, however, took his captive's silence as an affirmative, and continued.

"It's smaller on the outside, then?"

Again, the Doctor said nothing.

Yadathrin continued to read the report for another moment. As he did, the Doctor thought he heard screaming somewhere above him, and winced inwardly as he remembered the Stasi interrogations. Immediately his thoughts strayed to Rose and Donna, and he glanced toward the door nervously. Yadathrin spared a glance at the ceiling, before returning to the report. Then he looked at the Doctor again. "And you were found not twelve hundred tezidals from the mine. What were you doing there?" His face was sinking into a suspicious frown.

The Doctor's brow furrowed. "What mine? We were only wandering."

Yadathrin stared, his expression unchanging. "Then you didn't know it was there."

His voice did not betray any incredulity he might have felt, but the Doctor was certain that Yadathrin didn't believe him. Inwardly, he wondered what was so important about this mine, that the secret police took particular interest in keeping classified. He had a feeling it had something to do with the former Helial settlement, but from experience, the Doctor knew better than to ask. Instead, he replied, "Not at all."

"Yet you landed there," persisted the officer. "Did you have a purpose for landing in that particular area?"

Someone above them screamed again. The Doctor glanced upwards, before replying, "No, it was at random."

"So the blue box _is_ your ship," the Radilian said triumphantly, and the Doctor knew that there was no point in trying to hide that. Resigned, he nodded, knowing that until the Sestati saw fit to release them (and that could take years), they would keep the Tardis under constant surveillance, making absolutely certain that nobody could approach it. They were trapped on this world.

"Why did you come to Cypnov?" Yadathrin asked, his voice losing none of its warmth.

The Doctor was silent, thinking of how to answer the Sestati officer, but after a moment's thought, he could only say vaguely, "A survey, really."

Yadathrin blinked, clearly unsure of what to make of this answer, and for a moment, the Doctor feared that he had crossed a line. The other confirmed this when he said coolly, "Were you a Radilian like myself I would have you thrashed until you couldn't move for such a vague answer, but as it were, I would prefer not to be… incendiary."

The Doctor stared, but before he could reply, Yadathrin continued with his questions. "Are your people returning to Cypnov?"

"I told you, we're not Helials!"

"Who are the two females, and what are their ranks?" Yadathrin asked, ignoring the Doctor's exasperated exclamation.

Now thoroughly irritated, the Doctor curtly answered, "They're friends and traveling companions, that's all."

The Time Lord and the Radilian stared at each other for a long time, both completely expressionless, one or both hiding something from the other, the other and both unsure of what to make of the other. Then Yadathrin called for the guards. As they entered, he told them, "Take him back to his cell. Give him and his companions food and water, nothing with Genthakl extract, and keep them in acceptable living conditions."

The Doctor sighed in relief; it was better than he expected, and for a moment he almost respected Yadathrin. But then the screaming started again, and Yadathrin growled in annoyance, before picking up a small metal device with a speaker grill, and pressing a switch on the side, he bit out, "Kogartin, dispatch Derathin. You know he's got nothing more to say, and I'm sick of that infernal racket he's making."

As he and the guards exited the office, the Doctor flinched as a gunshot sounded upstairs, and the screaming ended abruptly. A moment later, two other guards appeared on the stairs, dragging a large bundle behind them and down the stairs with a series of soft thuds. As they passed, a trail of viscous, purple blood smeared from the bundle onto the floor.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Typical Doctor behavior, getting arrested within minutes of arrival. Anyway, there's a new post on the blog. It's still a bit early for me to say much more about Cypnov than I already have, so it's a post with some extra details about the previous story: "Some fun facts about 'Eve of the Eternal.'"**


	4. Chapter Three: The Hegemon of Cypnov

**After two rough weeks, I was glad to be able to get back to this revision. It's coming on slowly but steadily. Those who have read the original version will have noticed that I haven't put in any major changes yet, but in a few chapters, the plot will take a slightly different direction from before.**

**So quick review over last time: the Doctor, Rose, and Donna arrived at Cypnov, landing not too far from the site of an old Helial colony. Rose decided to take a look around, but she was worried about running into the Radilians, the planet's inhabitants, because she didn't know what to expect. Shortly after their arrival, they do run into a battalion of Radilians, police, who arrest them and, mistaking them for Helials, take them for interrogation. They learn that they are in a nation called Yaldego, which appears to be a police state. The Doctor witnesses their captors (the secret police, or Sestati) execute a Radilian prisoner. **

* * *

><p>Chapter Three<br>The Hegemon of Cypnov

_From the Doctor's journals:_

"_At that time entire planet was, more or less, under the authority of the Pratethate dynasty, a regime of aristocratic warlords and knights who all answered to one supreme ruling family. The highest authority was the Hegemon, a potentate in his own land and an emperor to the rest of Cypnov. Next in the hierarchy were the Overlords, who the Hegemon placed as governors over particular nations. Next were the Warlords, who ruled over particular regions within those nations; and finally, the very lowest rung of the aristocracy were the Paladins, warrior-like noblemen answerable to the Warlords, who owned property but did not rule over a particular domain._

_"As in most societies, this system functioned while the Hegemon had ultimate authority, or while the Overlords willingly cooperated with each other. Initially this was the case, after the first Hegemon appointed his siblings and closest friends as Overlords. However, as centuries pass, and family lines and old loyalties die out, the Overlords became more divided. Without that unity, the Pratethate began to crumble, and when a regime begins to decay, the rulers often become more ruthless, more repressive, in their efforts to preserve themselves and their power."_

* * *

><p>A day had passed since their arrival at the Sestati Headquarters near Greyalden (the center for oil trade in Yaldego, according to Rose), but since then, Rose, the Doctor, and Donna had done nothing except sit in their cell. The Sestati did not give a single hint, not even a whisper, to suggest their fate. Rose and Donna were questioned in a similar manner to the Doctor soon after his own interrogation, but just as with the Doctor, Yadathrin did not respond to their protests that they were not Helials.<p>

Since then, the only Radilians they'd spoken to were the guards when they brought food, and they never answered their prisoners' questions, nor were they ever pleasant company. On one of these occasions, once the guard had left the cell, Donna had suggested taking him out the next time he brought food and do a runner, but Rose squashed this idea by pointing out that even if they did miraculously escape the heavily guarded Sestati headquarters without being noticed, let alone getting the toxic barbs in their backs, they still had no where to go because they didn't know where the guards had hid the Tardis.

Rose had to admit, though, that the idea was much more appealing than being locked up knowing nothing. As a disappointed Donna sank onto the bed and began playing with a flake of white paint peeling from the wall, Rose took a seat by the bench and, more to find something to do than anything else, started brushing dust from the window sill.

She had spent a lot of her time there looking through the bars to the outside, where she distantly could see sandstone spiral towers and Halictids flying between those buildings, and occasionally a Sestati guard soared past the window. Those moments at the window usually were spent in deep thought of how to convince the Radilians to listen to them, and wondering how Yaldego came to be a police state. She couldn't know, of course, what happened between the Helials' departure and the present moment, but prior to and during the Helials' conquest, Yaldego was very much a just civilization with adherence to common and civil law and social order, a republic in which the people were granted rights and protections of those rights. But apparently that state had long since disappeared.

Rose looked at the sill and watched a small, red insect-like creature with five legs and two beady eyes ambling its way between the iron bars. These creatures, they were told, were called Neibs, arthropods that ate the bark of certain desert trees, and their prison cell was full of them. Donna had been revolted at first, but after a few days one got used to them, although Rose had, on more than one occasion, woken up to the sensation of a Neib crawling on her face or arms. It was annoying, she thought, but the plus side was that they frequently interrupted her continuous dreams about the _Eternal_.

As she watched, the Neib flared out its six wings and flew suddenly to one of the bars with a light buzz. As it climbed the bar slowly, Rose caught sight of movement in the courtyard below. Leaning forward for a closer look, she saw five Sestati officers, including Sinadar Yadathrin, lead a group of prisoners into the center of the courtyard. She could not hear what he was saying, but she could see one of the officers beating his hand lightly with what looked like a cosh.

When he finished talking, Yadathrin stood before the prisoners, his posture and countenance expressing expectation, and Rose realized that he'd been interrogating them. When none of them replied, however, Yadathrin nodded at the burly officer holding the weapon, and the latter marched between the row of prisoners, clouting them, one by one, between the wings. Every time the officer struck, the victim would stagger forward, sometimes falling; the sound did not penetrate the window, but the prisoners were clearly howling in pain.

Seeing her sickened expression, the Doctor, who had been eating the strange, bluish vegetables the guards had brought them, stood and joined her at the window. Rose saw his face harden as he took in the brutal scene below. Seeing them, Donna got up and joined them at the window in time to see one of the prisoners, unable to take any more of the torture, leap out of line and run across the courtyard in an attempt to take flight—but either the cosh had immobilized their wings, or the wingtips had been clipped. Either way, he could not take flight, but his tormenters could, and they were on top of him in seconds. Rose felt the others cringe beside her as they watched the guards drag him back and begin bludgeoning him, but neither of them could turn away from the scene. Then, after what felt like hours, the guards finally stopped, and at a gesture from Yadathrin, they dragged the unconscious wretch out of sight, leaving a mess of blood and turquoise feathers.

Before anything else happened, Rose felt a hand on her shoulder, and the Doctor turned her away from the window, and they both sat down.

"That was horrible," Donna whispered. Nobody responded. After a moment's silence, she then added, "What I don't get is why we're being treated well. I mean, the bugs are annoying, and sure, the guards are horrid, but they feed us, and they haven't hurt us. But this lot clearly have no problem with torture and murder."

"There could be any number of reasons," Rose replied. "It's possible that they're scared of us, given what we look like."

The Doctor leaned back, resting his head against the wall, and replied, "When I was being interrogated, Yadathrin"- Rose saw him stiffen slightly at the mention of their captor—"mentioned that he'd have no qualm about treating me like that poor bloke out there if I were a Radilian." He thought for a minute. "They're afraid of what might follow if they tortured three of their former colonial masters, but they want to find out what our coming here means. Their mistaking us for Helials may have saved our lives."

Rose, however, shook her head. "The Radilians know that the Helials wouldn't herald their return in the form of three explorers. They'd come with ships and guns blazing and march right into the government buildings, force surrender, and declare themselves the lords of Cypnov. It would happen so fast that the Radilian militaries wouldn't even have time to react. It's how they were conquered before, and it's how they've quelled every rebellion."

"But that was so long ago now that they might have forgotten."

"True. But on the other hand, we've repeatedly told them that we're not Helials," Rose reminded him. "There are several other humanoid species in this sector of the galaxy, which they know full well. For all Yadathrin knows, we could be one of those species messing with old Helial tech."

"Perhaps they're waiting for orders," the Doctor speculated. "All it would take is a single DNA test. They surely have records of Taledrevan DNA to compare it to." He saw Rose pale as he spoke. "Are you all right?"

"Part-Helial," she whispered.

Then the Doctor understood, and he swallowed. He and Donna were simply alien wanderers who had blundered close to a restricted area; their release was negotiable. With Rose it wasn't so simple. If the Radilians compared her DNA to Helial DNA, they would almost certainly notice the partial correlation, and most importantly, that she shared their regeneration capabilities, the very thing that led Taledrev to imperialism. Her still being about sixty-five percent human notwithstanding, the last thing they needed was the Yaldegan Sestati to see the connection, especially after witnessing what they did to their prisoners. When they realized that she was part-Helial, but had no connection with the empire, there would be nothing to stop them from keeping her a prisoner, or from harming her.

Rose was in greater danger than her companions, and the Doctor suddenly felt furious with himself for bringing her here without greater precaution. But swallowing his anger, he looked at Rose and reassured her, "We'll sort this out, Rose. I'll get us out of this, I promise."

She didn't return his gaze, or reply.

* * *

><p>For the Time Lord, telling the time of night wasn't much of a problem, although the Doctor supposed that a human who paid attention could work it out as well simply by watching for what few stars would appear in the only patch of sky visible in their window. After the first two nights, the Doctor knew that a day on Cypnov was longer than a day on Earth by a couple of hours, and at roughly the equivalent of midnight, three stars in the form of an obtuse triangle were visible from his narrow viewpoint, the long end pointing downward at the mountain range, which lay in the distance, just visible on the horizon.<p>

It wasn't the most exciting activity, but watching what few stars he could and keeping track of the minutes and seconds often was all the Doctor did during these hours. During the night hours on the Tardis, while his companions slept, he often made adjustments to the console, perused books in the library, or simply walked around the depths of the time ship. But here, when he wasn't sleeping his needed two or three hours, the Doctor sat on the bench and watched his companions sleep, without anyone to talk to or anything to do. Sometimes he spent these nights pacing around the cell quietly, or occasionally listening to the tired guards' muffled conversations outside.

At that moment, however, they were completely silent, and the only movement was the occasional Neib, including one that had made its presence known by crawling onto the back of the Doctor's neck, causing him to start and brush it off while holding back a yelp. The only sounds were the buzz of the strange insects, the occasional distant roar of a Halictid, and Donna's light snores.

Since the arrest, Donna and Rose had agreed to alternate between the mattress and the floor, and on this night it was Rose's turn. She lay on her back with her hair spread out, and her left arm resting on her stomach. When the Doctor looked at her, his eyes were drawn to the stump where her hand should be. She had shocked Donna the first night when, after undoing a catch on her metal wrist, she gripped her left hand with her right and twisted it roughly. The ghastly thing came free of her arm in an instant, revealing the cybernetic adaptor between nerve endings and wiring.

"What are you doing?" Donna had all but shrieked.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Don't knock it," she said coolly. "Would you be comfortable resting with a great heavy lump of metal in your bed?"

The Doctor remembered Donna's stunned expression with amusement, but now and every night since Rose's rescue from the Void Ship, he wondered how Rose had lost her hand. Either she didn't remember herself, or she didn't want to talk about it. He wished there was more he could do for it, but Helial regeneration couldn't regrow limbs (only rejuvenate), and even if it could, it appeared that her hand was severed long before she gained the Helial regeneration ability. Her body no longer recognized the existence of a left hand.

As the Doctor was lost in his reflections, Rose started muttering in her sleep, and the Doctor looked at her again warily. She didn't say anything discernable, but even with the limited light, he could see the sweat shining on her face, and her head kept twitching from side to side. He hesitated, wondering if he should wake her, but there was no need; a moment later, Rose suddenly cried out and sat up.

"DOCTOR!"

Donna snored loudly. Rose blinked for a moment and she took in her surroundings, like she was trying to remember where she was. Then her eyes fell upon the Doctor, who remained seated on his bench, watching her sadly, wishing he could take away the memories that clearly still haunted her. Their eyes met, and the Doctor held her gaze for a moment, trying to silently communicate his sympathy; but Rose was not ready to appreciate it. Her expression hardened, and she turned away from his sorrowful expression and lay back down without a word, facing the wall.

The Doctor closed his eyes, forcing down the sting of her cold rejection of his compassion; but at the same time, he understood it, and strangely enough, that made this all the harder for him. Sometimes he couldn't help but watch her sleep, because when her rest wasn't troubled with nightmares, her pain fell away, and it was almost as though the Void Ship had never happened. This was when she most resembled the Rose he remembered. Then she'd wake up, and this new, embittered Rose would return, and it hurt him to watch that happen, watch Rose turn into something like himself, especially just after the Time War, angry and defensive every time her troubles came up in a conversation. She would not accept pity for what had happened to her. He failed her in the most horrible way possible.

_Rose… oh, Rose. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry._

He swallowed, and watched her until her breathing returned to its normal sleeping pace. Then there she was again, his impossible shop girl from so long ago. It gave him hope that perhaps, with time and patience, he could help her heal, save her from her pain, and bring out the girl he knew, the Rose Tyler he knew was still somewhere in there.

* * *

><p>Early the next morning, the door burst open, waking Rose and Donna and causing the Doctor, caught unawares, to jump. Their usual guard stood there, along with several others, but he was not carrying food this time.<p>

"Get up," he ordered Rose and Donna, who obeyed, looking curious and wary.

"What's going on?" the Doctor asked, but the guards did not reply. The first gestured for them to follow him. The Doctor stepped out of the cell first, and found himself facing Captain Sarjeth, the officer who had captured them.

"Follow me," he told them as Rose and Donna exited the cell.

The Doctor glanced at the others apprehensively, but without the Tardis he saw no alternative but to do as they were told, though it worried him that the Radilians wouldn't tell him where they were taking them. But as they led him down the spiral staircase, the Doctor realized that the Sestati hadn't blindfolded or cuffed them this time. At the foot of the stairs was a lobby they were blind to the first time around, where only a few Sestati officers, and several of what the Doctor guessed were civilians. Both groups stared at the three humanoids being taken—no, _escorted_—out of the Sestati prison, and the Doctor supposed that they were departing early to avoid drawing a crowd of curious spectators.

They did not linger in the lobby. The guards escorted the three of them out, not through the front door, but down a hallway which ended with a hangar, where there were several parked Halictid ornithopters. Sarjeth stopped, and the guards each took hold of a prisoner's shoulder, holding them in place.

"Where are you taking us?" Rose calmly asked Sarjeth.

Instead of answering, he shot her an annoyed look before telling the three of them, "It takes one hour to arrive at our destination. You three are not to sit next to each other during the trip. If you cooperate, you will not be harmed."

He made a gesture at the guards, and ten minutes later, the three of them were seated in the Halictid, each with a Sestati on either side. The Halictid rolled out of the hangar and onto a helipad, and the engine roared into life. The Doctor felt relieved that they at least were leaving the prison, but of course, it was a relief tinted with concern about what would happen next, and why they were being treated almost as guests in comparison with before.

The two hours spent inside the Halictid were rather uneventful; the only sound was the engine, but this time the Doctor was able to occupy himself with a closer look at the technology. He'd said it himself, ornithopters were not easy machines to put together, as opposed to the simpler airplane or even airships, but he supposed that Radilians would think in terms of their own anatomy when designing such vehicles. He only wished the Halictid had windows, so he could see the landscape below.

This trip, even though it was twice as long as the first, did not seem so, but perhaps that was because this time, the Doctor, Rose, and Donna were not blindfolded, and they were at least able to look at each other. Then, at length, they felt the ornithopter descend, and the Doctor looked toward the cockpit, where he could just see a helipad through the windshield. A moment later, the ornithopter lurched as it made contact with the concrete.

The guards pulled the Doctor to his feet, and led him and the others out of the Halictid. When they alighted onto the helipad, the first thing they saw was a spectacular building, made up of sandstone walls, several wings, and a wide tower in the center. It reminded the Doctor simultaneously of the Hagia Sophia and Angkor Wat. A small, dark-blue ground vehicle then appeared by the Halictid, driven by a wrinkled, elderly but official-looking Radilian wearing a dark-green tunic. The Sestati guards nudged their prisoners (if they could be called prisoners at this point) toward the car, and they clambered in, but this time only two officers and Sarjeth accompanied them.

"Where are we?" the Doctor asked Sarjeth, more or less repeating Rose's earlier question. This time Sarjeth answered.

"Gavarik, the heart of Yaldego," Sarjeth informed him. He indicated the sandstone building: "And that is the palace of the Hegemon."

"You're taking us to your ruler?" the Doctor asked with raised eyebrows.

Sarjeth merely bowed his head slightly in confirmation. "His Eminence has been informed of your presence, and he is anxious to meet you. His First Minister, Lord Davinathe, ordered your relocation to the palace last night."

"Where are we going to be staying?" asked Rose.

"That is the decision of the Hegemon," Sarjeth told her coolly. "From this point on, you are in his hands."

Rose frowned at him. "And what are we to expect while we are here?"

Sarjeth looked at the driver with a neutral expression, and when the servant gave a noncommittal grunt, he said, "I understand you are to be treated as guests; but my orders were merely to bring you here."

The Doctor found it hard to find this reassuring; judging by Rose's and Donna's expressions, they shared his concerns about meeting a ruler who allowed the brutality they'd witnessed at Greyalden.

When they entered the palace some ten minutes later, the Doctor stopped in his tracks. The entrance hall was magnificent. The high domed ceiling towered above them, silver bands lining sandstone panels painted red and gold, supported by brass pillars. The walls around them were decorated with historical paintings, depicting a burly, powerful-looking Radilian upon a Salesat, leading great battalions across landscapes of all climates, liberating cities and villages from barbaric tyrants. The hall was as wide as it was tall, and light shone in through stain-glass windows almost as high as the ceiling, bathing its occupants in red sunlight, and gold chandeliers hung above them, bright light emanating from the thousand electric bulbs.

The hall initially seemed empty, but as Sarjeth led them further into the hall, their footsteps echoing around them, the Doctor saw a number of Radilians come into view near the great marble stairwell at the end of the hallway, all dressed in tunics of fine fabrics of red and black; those in red were wearing intricate caps, evidently persons of high rank. Their eyes were all fixed upon the three humanoids, their faces expressionless. It was clear that they had been apprised of their coming.

Then the Doctor caught sight of a movement in the corner, a creature that even someone new to this world could see was out of place: a radially symmetrical alien with purplish skin, three arms, and three legs, staring through three eyes at the newcomers alongside the Radilians. He nudged Rose and gestured at the creature. "That's not from Cypnov."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "That's a Keiroid," she muttered. "The Keira are from Valdar, another former Helial colony, located in a triple star system about four parsecs away."

"I'll bet he's a diplomat," the Doctor whispered.

"It's a she," Rose corrected, smirking. Then, as Sarjeth beckoned them forward, she muttered to him, "Keep their attention on you more than me."

Before the Doctor could do more than frown in confusion at this, one of the red-clad Radilians stepped forward. "Welcome, offworlders, to the Great Palace of Pratethan Velathin."

"Thank you," the Doctor replied. "Are you the Hegemon?"

"I am Minister Ferjhaal Davinathe," he told him quietly. "It is my privilege to escort you to the Hegemon. You will address him as 'Your Eminence' or 'sir.' I advise you to answer his questions directly."

Before any of them could respond, Davinathe gestured for them to follow him, and began ascending the staircase behind him. The Doctor and his companions followed, as did the ministers and the Keiroid. At the top of the stairwell was a grand chamber, and at the far end they saw a Radilian seated in a throne without a backrest, two guards in blood-red armor standing on either side. When they came within twenty feet of the throne, Davinathe stopped, and stepped to the side.

"His Eminence, Deljath Theletas, Hegemon of Cypnov!"

* * *

><p>Rose narrowed her eyes at the little Radilian on the throne, who wore a fine green toga over a blue tunic, both garments adorned with goldwork, and his head adorned with a sort of black ushanka with a crest on the front. His wings were flared out, in a rather ridiculous attempt to make himself look larger and more majestic, but Rose could see that he was smaller and skinnier than the other Radilians, and his whispy feathers and small, sunken eyes indicated ill health. Beside him stood another Radilian wearing a white toga and an ornate headdress, slightly larger than Deljath, but smaller than the others, with smaller ears and a thinner tail. Rose guessed this one to be female, though even with her prior research, it was very hard to tell.<p>

The Hegemon then raised a hand and beckoned for the three of them to move closer. As they did, he got to his feet, and leveled a cool gaze upon them. The other Radilians stilled as he stepped forward until he was standing right in front of the Doctor. There was an uncomfortable silence as they stared at each other. Then Deljath drew himself up (though he remained dwarfed by the Doctor), and asked in a remarkably calm voice, "Helial?"

The Doctor smiled enigmatically, and corrected, "Time Lord."

The female, probably Deljath's wife, visibly started, and Rose heard a couple of the ministers whisper to each other. The Hegemon stepped backward with wide, astonished eyes, and in the corner of her eye, Rose saw the Keiroid step forward, squinting at them in interest.

Looking rather pleased with himself, the Doctor observed, "I take it, your Eminence, that you've heard of the Time Lords."

Deljath's eyes flicked over to Rose and Donna as well, then he looked back at the Doctor. "Indeed, we have."

He glanced at Davinathe, who stepped forward and added, "The Time Lords were frequently mentioned in the archives of late Taledrevan imperial politics; and I'd wager that there's not a single former Helial colony whose inhabitants aren't interested in the one race our former overlords feared to attack."

The Doctor looked amused and impressed. No one spoke, until Davinathe slowly moved forward until he stood next to the Hegemon and bowed his head, speaking to him in a low tone. Then Deljath looked at one of the black-clad attendants, and he called out, "Lord Nahtavid!"

The Radilian stepped forward and bent his head forward in a respectful bow.

"Your sister has her equipment ready?"

Nahtavid straightened, and looked at another Radilian in the corner Rose hadn't noticed before, a female also clad in black, who stepped forward. "Temenir?" he called out.

The female also bowed her head toward the Hegemon. "Everything is read, my lord." She then quickly moved toward them, carrying a small device in her left hand that looked a bit like a silver Tamagotchi. As Temenir approached them, the Doctor glanced at Rose, who merely raised an eyebrow at him, and he hesitantly stepped forward.

"It's just a small blood sample," Temenir told him. "It won't harm you."

The Doctor nodded, and rolled up his sleeve. Temenir took his wrist and pressed the device into his forearm. He winced slightly as it gave a small click, and she drew back, shaking the metal device gently. She then reached into the folds of her toga and withdrew a larger, similar metal device, which she fitted the blood sample into. They waited in tense silence. Then Temenir lowered the scanner and glanced at her brother before turning to Deljath.

"Well?" asked the Hegemon.

"He is not a Helial," she informed him, "nor is he Edren or any other similar life form in our archives."

"As I said," the Doctor told them, "Time Lord."

The ministers broke out into whispers again, and even Deljath's guards, who evidently were supposed to stand unmoving, couldn't seem to avoid staring at them. Then Davinathe called for silence, and Deljath's eyes moved from the Doctor to his companions.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "Why did you come here?"

"I'm the Doctor," the Time Lord answered. "This is Rose Tyler"—she nodded respectfully to Deljath—"and this is Donna Noble."

Deljath merely glanced at the two women, but Rose noticed that Davinathe was scrutinizing all three of them in turn. She felt somewhat disquieted by his gray eyes. She'd thought Colonel Yadathrin's were perturbing, but Davinathe's gaze made her outright nervous.

"You speak for your people, Doctor?" asked Deljath.

The Doctor's smile became very fixed. "You could say that."

The Hegemon and the First Minister looked at each other. After a very long pause, Deljath turned back to the Doctor.

"You are all very welcome guests," he told them courteously. He then looked at Temenir. "Show them to my finest available guest chamber, and send them refreshment when they are settled."

Temenir bowed again. "As you wish."

As she turned to lead them out of the hall, Deljath added, "I should like to become better acquainted with the three of you. Do I ask too much to request that you join me and Lady Aervanyn"—he gestured at his wife—"for dinner this evening?"

The Doctor glanced at Rose, who said, "Not at all. You are very kind."

Temenir and Sarjeth (who had been standing to respectful attention throughout the exchange, not saying a word) then escorted them up the stairs. Glancing back at Deljath and Aervanyn, Rose noticed Davinathe lean toward the former, both of them whispering to each other. But she had no time to watch them, because at that moment Temenir led them around a corner and down a small corridor, lit with small chandeliers and decorated with portraits of what Rose guessed to be previous Hegemons.

"You may return to your duties," Temenir told Sarjeth. "I can handle them on my own."

Sarjeth merely gave a curt nod and disappeared back around the corner. Rose couldn't help but sigh in relief, and Donna whispered, "Well, that's him gone. No loss there."

As Temenir led them down the hallway, Rose asked her, "So, what's going on?"

Temenir glanced at her. "I should be the one asking you that, ma'am." She turned left and they followed her down another narrow hallway. Temenir then stopped and opened a door to the right, and showed them into a large room with a domed ceiling. There were several large cushions on the floor, a couple of beds, and some tables among other assorted décor. To Rose's immense relief, on a corner table lay her rucksack where she'd packed the "Soylent Green" wafers and other supplies. The Sestati had fed them, but the strange Radilian food three times a day wasn't adequate for her.

"I can send for another bed," Temenir told them as Rose picked up the rucksack. "For the time being, this chamber is yours. Is there anything you'd like the servants to bring you?"

"Yes," Rose said, quickly. "I'd like to learn more about the history of Cypnov, particularly in the past few hundred years."

"You mean ever since the Helials disappeared?" Temenir asked quietly. "We are frequently asked that by alien explorers. I'll see to it that you have a few books."

"Thank you." Rose lowered herself onto one of the cushions beside a low table, which held a bowl filled with red-orange fig-shaped fruits. As she sank into the cushion, she glanced at the table, and then caught sight of something just visible from beneath the table. Rose stilled when she saw it, but then casually looked back at Temenir.

"The Hegemon will have dinner in six hours," Temenir told them. "My brother Lord Nahtavid will come by later to give you a tour of the palace and the grounds. In the meantime, I shall send for some refreshments." She paused, and scrutinized them for a moment. "I don't suppose you eat the same diet as the Helials or the Edrens?"

The Doctor and Donna looked at Rose, who thought it over for a minute, sorting through what Eve had planted into her memory. Then she told Temenir, "Yes. Nothing with Genthakl juice or Daliar seeds. No Ayar either. Anything else should be fine."

Temenir nodded and picked up the fruit bowl. "I'll take this away, then," she said, "and I'll give instructions to the cooking staff. Lord Theletas will send for you when he wants to meet you. Have you any questions?" The others shook their heads. "Very well. If you need anything else, just send for me."

She indicated a button beside the door, and then left the room.

"Well, that's a nice change from that hole we spent the last couple of days in," Donna remarked. "Wonder why they didn't test all our DNA. And now they think…"

She stopped when Rose abruptly sat up and urgently pressed her finger to her lips. The Doctor and Donna looked at her questioningly, and Rose wordlessly reached under the table from which Temenir had removed the fruit bowl, and then withdrew her metal hand, showing them a small black device. Leaning forward, the others saw that it was pentagonal in shape, and not much larger than a thumbnail, but it was unmistakably a microphone.

* * *

><p>A few hours had passed. Raquin Nahtavid slowly wandered down a path through the gardens, watching Verkata set behind the palace. He loved this path; the woods and gardens near the palace, which lay south of the city, were large and expansive. Traditionally they were an artificial hunting ground for the Pratethate warlords, although the current Hegemon's poor health prevented him from pursuing the sport. Instead the overlords and the warlords frequented the gardens when in attendance at the palace, while the woods served as a favorite site to ride Salesats during the summer afternoons.<p>

The woods also served another useful purpose: they were a favorite site to visit, if one didn't wish to be overheard.

Raquin glanced around, and saw that the only person in the vicinity was a gardener, whose back was turned. While the servant remained unaware of his presence, Raquin quietly ran down the path and disappeared into the trees. The woods were very dark at sunset, which better served his purpose. Turning around, Raquin watched the gardener bend over a mivik bush and begin pruning its branches.

A moment later, he heard footsteps behind him, and he turned expectantly. A moment later a man in the navy-blue tunic of a palace footman appeared on the path. He and Raquin looked at each other for a moment, and then Raquin, gritting his teeth slightly, quietly greeted him. "Good evening, Ytrein."

The other returned the greeting. "I'm glad you were able to make it, Nahtavid. You're certain we won't be overheard here?"

"Positive. I've been at the palace long enough to know what places are safe. Since Dajna's capture, Davinathe has had listening systems installed in almost every room of the palace."

"That explains why you no longer attempt to contact Sadarin from your office," Ytrein deduced.

"I have gained the Hegemon's trust," Raquin reminded him. "Sadarin knows I have to do all in my power to keep it for as long as possible." He started walking down the path, leading Ytrein deeper into the woods. They didn't speak for quite some time, until after a few minutes, they had moved into an area so dark that Raquin could barely see his hands. They stood in silence for several more minutes, until Raquin spoke up again.

"I assume that Sadarin has a message for me, then?" When Ytrein didn't reply, Raquin huffed. "Well, get on with it. I don't have all night. Deljath expects me at dinner in an hour."

"Fair enough," Ytrein hissed. "Sadarin is very interested in the three Helials that Sarjeth captured."

"I know that," Raquin said impatiently. "And they're not Helials."

"I already know," Ytrein said in equal impatience. "Probably the whole palace staff knows about them by now. I'm not sure what a Time Lord is, but evidently the Hegemon and Davinathe think it's important."

"Sadarin will too," Raquin told him. "He knows as much about the Helials as anyone. Believe me, Ytrein, this will interest him as much as them being Helials would have."

"Then it's a good thing that I have already send a message to Sadarin," Ytrein whispered. "I haven't received his reply yet, but I expect one soon."

Raquin sighed. "But you know what he wants to do with regard to the aliens."

"Yes." There was a pause. "I don't know if you've heard, but a few weeks ago, a spy in Greyalden got some information to base concerning some top-secret activity going on somewhere west of said city… you know, near the oilrigs. Coincidentally, that area isn't too far from where Sarjeth found the aliens."

"What sort of activity?"

"We're not certain, but I am told it is of a technological nature. Apparently only a small piece of the science has reached us, but it was of a nature that bewildered all our scientists. Even Delbadar was clueless."

Raquin sighed. "Now that is saying something. What else is there to know?"

"Etalih Innai."

Raquin froze, remembering the scrap of paper he'd found the night of Lord Divathan's death.

"We think it's a code name for whatever they're working on."

"But what's this got to do with the aliens?" asked Raquin.

"If what you say is true, Sadarin's orders concerning them will not change on the basis of their species," Ytrein whispered. "I assume that the Time Lords surely know as much about technology as Helials?"

"Undoubtedly."

"Then this is in your hands," Ytrein told him. "You're in a better position than I to make this mission possible. Sadarin has ordered me to abduct one of the aliens and bring them to him."

* * *

><p><strong>Yep. The Doctor, Rose, and Donna are far from out of the woods. <strong>

**No blog post today. But feel free to peruse older posts, if you like. If you have anything you'd like me to clarify, or any questions about either "Cypnov" so far or about "Eve of the Eternal," which I might place in later commentary, let me know. I am always open to hearing feedback. **


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